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Price, 50 cents. 



An Oculist’s Life Story 


BY 

F. B. DOWD. 



'^ol. I. No. 1. AUGUST, 1898. Published Monthly 


The Temple IJbrary. 

I 

Subscription, $5.00 per year. 


Entered at Post Office^ Denver^ Colo,., as Second Class Mail Matter. 


IVSTERN BRANCH, 

115 HANCOCK ST., DORCHESTER, MASS. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 


(jhe Ijempte of 

XJhe Snosp Cross 

By F. B. Dowd. 


HIS remarkable book, now in its third edition, has proved, for many 
souls, the opening gate to the higher life. No one can read this 
book without realizing, in ever-increasing degree, the truths as to 
man’s real nature which the author sets forth. His style is char- 
acterized by a simplicity and clearness of diction, through which 
shines his own deep and steady faith. — The Temple^ Denver, 

“The Temple of the Eosy Cross” is the name of one of the most remark- 
able books I have ever read. It embodies what I believe to be much of the 
rarest and noblest philosophy of this and previous ages. In styl® it is as great 
as the best works of Emerson j in thought it is vastly superior. 

— Helen Wilmans^ in Woman's World. 

This work contains the fundamental principles of all religions — the phil- 
osophy of mankind and the road leading to a true life, and immortality 

here on this poor, much abused earth It is not claimed that this work is 

wholly Eosicrucian. The more sublime principles of this fraternity are not 
conveyed in this manner ; but enough is given to enable the earnest searcher of 
truth to get a glimpse of the glory hidden, now, even as in the past. 

— Extract from Preface. 

12mo, cloth, gilt top, 240 pages, price, fl.OO; half-morpcco, full gilt, $1.50. 

Sent post-paid, to any address, on receipt of price. ^ 

THE TEMPLE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

MASONIC TEMPLE, DENVER, COLO. 

Eastern Branch, 

27 Vine Street, Eoxbury, Mass. 



THE DOUBLE MAN 


ai igotirt 


Ff5*B»'-’^OWD 





1898. . . 

The Temple Publishing Company, 
Barclay Block, > ,■, 
DENVER. t 




3 





16778 

Copyrighted, iSqs, 

HY 

F . B . DOWD. 

All R ights Reserved, 




Wo COPIES BECEll tD. 



A rena Press 







i 


CONTENTS. 


1. Introduction 5 

II. Introduction Continued 20 

PART I. 

CHAPTEK 

I. A Magician 34 

II. Don La Velle and the Frog Man 41 

III. The Man with the Slouch Hat and Cloak 49 

IV. Ina Gray 58 

V. The Laboratory 65 

VI. Ina and Don 74 

VII. Diabolism 85 

VIII. The Double 106 

IX. Fate 112 

X. A Spectre 130 

XI. The Inquest and Burial 139 

XII. At the Tomb 149 

XIII. The Curse of Ina 155 

XIV. Ina to Don. — The Stranger Again 162 

XV. Insanity 169 

XVI. A Monster’s Birth in Spirit 180 

XVII. Double Again 198 

PART II. — The Sequel. 

I. Experiences of the Double. — The Trunk. . . Is? 

II. My Second Journey 223 A ^ 

m. My Third Journey 239 '" 

IV. Fourth Journey 254 

V. Fifth Journey. — New Jerusalem 269 

VI. Nirvana and the Dewi Lokas 282 

VII. Paradise 295 


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THE DOUBLE MAH- 


I. 

INTEODUCTION. 

My acquaintance with the hero of the following 
story began in the following manner : 

One hot summer day as I walked down B 

Street after an absence of several months, I found 
myself at Mr. Morrison’s flour store. Hearing 
the hum of voices from within, I carelessly en- 
tered. Old Bob McIntosh ” and perhaps a 
half dozen others, among them a man known as 
Don La Velle — all of the independent free school 
of thought — were seated around, talking upon 
religious subjects. ‘^Bob”was an out-and-out 
atheist and had no good thoughts nor words for 
any form of superstition, as he termed all belief 
in God or a future state of existence. With two 
exceptions the others were agnostics or pretended 
freethinkers (with the free left out). The dis- 
cussion — the subject of which I have forgotten — 
ran high, nor does it matter to this story. In the 
height of the debate Don joined in, and all listened 
5 


6 


INTRODUCTION. 


with marked attention, for he spoke of a future 
state of existence as one speaks of what he knows. 
One of the exceptions to whom I have alluded 
was a Mr. Albee. He was walking back and 
forth the whole length of the room with his 
hands behind his back. A thick-set man, about 
five feet eight inches in height, short, thick neck, 
very red in the face, heavy eyebrows, high, proud 
forehead, eyes of a grayish brown, plenty of 
brown hair, face smooth-shaved, body and limbs 
well proportioned, except that he was somewhat 
inclined to embonpoint — and about sixty-five 
years old. I had never met Mr. Albee previously, 
and Don was a stranger to all present except 
myself. In a short time after Don joined in the 
conversation the subject merged into the growth 
of religion, in which he claimed that it was only 
a contagion, which changes in type as civilization 
changes the character and habits of the race. 

‘Hdeas,” said he, ‘‘ are contagious ; they grow 
and they die ; they spread from one individual 
to another like the smallpox, which does not 
attack every one. There are some people proof 
against smallpox, so there are some who are 
proof against an idea, no matter how simple it 
may be. Methodism took its rise from John 
Wesley, but it is not generally known that the 
disease was inoculated into him by spirits. We 
little know the origin of anything. I am of the 
opinion that all diseases and plagues that visit 
this earth come from the spirit world.” 


INTRODUCTION. 


7 


I had noticed that as Don spoke Mr. Albee 
walked more rapidly and at last stopped in front 
of Don, upon whom he gazed with an earnest, 
fierce look. His hands had unclasped from 
behind and were now shut as a pugilist ready for 
the fray. As Don enunciated the last word Mr. 
Albee fairly shouted, at the same time gesticulat- 
ing with raised fists, as if he meditated violence 
upon the little man who calmly surveyed him 
from head to foot. 

‘‘You are a liar, sir ! You and all the spirits 
are liars ! The Devil owns you all ! The Devil 
is your father, sir ! You are one of those cursed 
Spiritualists, sir ! Get out of my sight ! And 
repent before it is too late ! As sure as you live 
the Devil will get you, soul and body, and carry 
you to Hell if you don’t repent ! I call upon 
you ! I warn you to repent ! ” etc. 

Reader, to appreciate such a scene you must 
witness it. There was Albee, red as a beet in the 
face, with bloodshot eyes, shouting at the top 
of his voice, the crowd of loungers dumb with 
amazement. Apparently the only one undis- 
turbed was little Don La Velle. He stood calmly 
looking at Albee till he seemed to have exhausted 
his vocabulary of denunciation, when, coolly step- 
ping close to Albee, Don shook his finger at him, 
saying in a mild, distinct tone of voice, while look- 
ing him squarely in the eyes, 

“Friend, the spirits you denounce so vehe- 
mently have once lived and suffered on this 


8 


INTRODUCTION. 


earth as we do to-day ; they have been, many 
of them probably, your near and dear friends ; 
beware how you call them ill names lest you 
offend a power with which you can do nothing. 
They may get hold of you some day, and when 
they do they ivill make you jingle to your hearts 
content. 

‘‘You are a liar, sir! The Devil is in you ! 
fairly yelled Mr. Albee. But Don coolly turned 
and walked out of the store. 

Mr. Morrison occupied rooms over the store, 
with an only daughter, who was somewhat of an 
invalid, said to have consumption.' Mr. Morrison 
was a member of Father Challen’s church — 
Camphellite I think it was — and Mr. Albee also, 
as I learned shortly after the episode in the flour 
store. 

Now Morrison’s daughter was something of a 
medium, had visions, etc., and Mr. Morrison pro- 
cured Planchette for her, but this was kept a 
profound secret — for fear of “Mother Grundy.” 
Many were the beautiful messages from his long 
since deceased wife, written by Planchette under 
the transparent little hand of his dear daughter, 
who seemed to him more like an angel — so frail 
and delicate was she — than a mortal being. 

“ Deceive her own father ? She with one foot 
already in the grave ? Preposterous 1 Not to be 
thought of for a moment.” So said Mr. Morrison 
to Mr. Albee one day shortly after the events 
spoken of — for be it known they were intimate 


INTRODUCTION. 


9 


friends, as well as brethren in the same church. 
Furthermore there was a closer bond of sym- 
pathy between them than church fellowship; 
they were nearly the same age, and both were 
widowers. But Albee had buried three wives and 
had now been living a celibate life for fifteen 
years. I have no doubt of this latter fact, for 
Mr. Albee was a very devout man, very conscien- 
tious withal, and was horror-struck at the mere 
mention of being untrue to his wives, even though 
they were dead. No one ever whispered a word 
against his moral character. Strictly truthful 
and upright in business, he was a man who com- 
manded respect, in spite of his hot temper and 
bigotry. He knew the Scriptures almost by rote, 
but could not argue thereon without boiling over 
with anger. So it happened one day when Mr. 
Morrison was more than ordinarily happy at hav- 
ing received messages from his wife that he could 
not doubt, that he showed several of them to Mr. 
Albee, under a pledge of secrecy of course. 
Curiosity as well, perhaps, as a vague hope that 
he also might get a word or twQ from his deal- 
departed ’’ got the better of Albee’s unreasoning 
bigotry, and he solicited an interview with the 
spirits. 

With all his cant and sanctified manner I am 
inclined to think that, deep down in his heart, he 
had doubts as to the truth of theology, and more, 
perhaps, than all else, a very large doubt of 
his own regeneration. Possibly all this loud- 


10 


INTRODUCTION. 


mouthed bluster about being born of God and 
anathematizing those who disagreed with him 
may have been used to strengthen his weakness, 
just as a coward generally swears the loudest 
when his heart is palpitating with fear. Given, 
a doubt in the mind, and one is like a drowning 
man, catching at anything. I don’t think Mr. 
Albee would have attended the seance with 
Miss Morrison unless it was to be kept a secret. 
Oh, this sinning in secret ! It shows that those 
who do so do not believe what they publicly 
pretend. But, friend, remember this : God will 
bring every secret as well as public act into 
judgment, and there is no escape, pray and preach 
as you will, as the sequel will show. We will 
let Mr. Albee tell his own story further on. It 
was but a few days thereafter that I happened 
to meet Albee ; I should have passed him by with- 
out recognition, but he approached me with out- 
stretched hand and a beaming smile, drew me to 
one side, and in a mysterious undertone told me 
of Miss Morrison and the Blanchette, and that he 
was investigating, etc. ; and that Blanchette would 
write with his hand on it as well as it would for 
Miss Morrison, and that he had got communica- 
tions from all of his wives, which he took from 
his pocket and showed me. I could not well do 
otherwise than encourage him, and I voluntarily 
gave him instructions as to habits— bathing, fast- 
ing, diet, etc. — referring him to the book of 
Daniel for authority. He left in high glee, 


INTRODUCTION. 


11 


assuring me that he would faithfully follow in- 
structions. So much for his belief in the Devil. 

It might have been two or three weeks later 
when I called again at the flour store. Mr. 
Morrison asked me if I had seen Albee lately. 

‘‘No,” I replied, “ I haven’t seen him in a long 
time. Why ? ” 

“ He is looking for you and that Mr. La Yelle. 
I fear he is going crazy ! — I do wish you would 
look him up.” 

Just then Father Challen came in. He looked 
excited, shook hands, and then asked : 

“How is this. Brother Morrison, you were not 
at church yesterday ? ” 

“No,” replied Mr. Morrison, “my daughter 
was not able to go, and I stayed with her.” 

“ Ah, I see,” said the parson ; then turning to 
me he said, “Your Spiritualism makes people 
crazy, I see.” 

“ Why, who is crazy uow ? Not you nor friend 
Morrison, I hope. And as for me, I suppose I 
always was that way, so that my case can’t be 
laid to Spiritualism. Who is it, pray tell us ? ” 

“Why, Mr. Albee is nearly, if not quite so,” 
said the parson, looking piercingly at Mr. Morrison. 
“ He got up in church at the close of services, and, 
amidst sobs and groans, said the devil had him 
in his clutches, and begged the prayers of the 
congregation, but gave no further explanation, 
except to say it is this cursed Spiritualism that is 
at the bottom of it. You, Mr. Morrison, are a 


12 


INTRODUCTION. 


great friend of his, and possibly can give us some 
light upon it. ” 

‘‘ This is certainly news to me,” said Mr. Morri- 
son. I know nothing of all this, but I thought 
Albee looked quite strange when he called about 
an hour ago. I was busy at the time and had no 
time for conversation.” 

Well, Parson,” said I, now thoroughly aroused, 

did you pray for him ? ” 

‘‘Certainly ! And several offered up suppli- 
cations to the throne of Grace in his behalf,” 
answered the parson. 

“Ah, indeed ! ” I rejoined, “ and yet in spite of 
your belief in the promise of the Saviour that 
‘whatsoever ye shall ask in my name shall be 
granted unto you,’ you go about reporting Albee 
insane. Evidently you do not believe in the 
efficacy of your prayers as you pretend.” 

“ Sir ! ” exclaimed the aged parson, drawing 
himself up and looking sternly at me, as I 
thought, “I fear you little understand the 
value of prayers, or the way in which they are, 
and should be, offered. Iii our church we always 
pray Thy will he done.^^ 

“ Certainly,” I again rejoined ; “ that is your 
way of making the Scriptures of non-effect. 
Where, then, is the use of your prayers ? God will 
do His will anyway, regardless of your advice. 
But I am ready to concede that if you and your 
congregation had really, from the heart, desired 
Mr. Albee’s good, and in your hearts really be- 


INTRODUCTION. 


13 


lieve in your prayers, the effect upon Mr. Albee 
would have been beneficial. I think he is merely 
hypnotized, but I must see him. It seems evident 
to me that you neither love Mr. Albee nor yet be- 
lieve in your prayers. You mock the Father ; you 
ask Him to do what you don’t try yourself to do.” 

With this outburst of indignation I left them 
staring at my rudeness. Unable to find Mr. 
Albee, I took my way to La Velle’s studio. I 
soon told him what I had heard. It did not 
seem to surprise him in the least ; on the contrary, 
he coolly remarked, 

I expected it. You heard what I said to him 
in the flour store ? ” 

^Wes.” 

Well, at that time I saw lots of people around 
him that I had not noticed till he began to curse, 
then I saw three women close to him. Did not 
you see them ? ” 

^^No,” said I ; ^Hhere were no women in the 
store.” 

'^Possibly not,” said he, with a strange far- 
away look in his eyes. “ They undoubtedly 
were spirits. They looked so much like earthly 
women that I thought they were such at the 
time ; but after I had left the store they went 
along with me for half a block.” 

Did you speak to them ? ” I asked. 

^'Yes, but they did not answer, and all of a 
sudden they disappeared.” 

'‘Well,” said I, ''we must find Albee and 
save him if possible.” 


14 


INTRODUCTION. 


‘‘Don’t be in such a hurry,” said Don; “no 
one can work against faith. When fruit is ripe 
it falls to the ground. That man must suffer ; he 
cannot ripen spiritually till all the lust is burned 
out of him. All the love he has ever known is 
lust — a consuming fire. Let it burn ! ” 

I thought he took it rather coolly, and went my 
way intending to do all I could, single-handed, for 
Mr. Albee. To this end I searched all the places 
of public resort, and not finding him, asked Mr. 
Morrison where he boarded. 

He had a room in the third story of the Ackley 
House, but there I learned that he had left town, 
and no one knew when he would return. It 
might have been a week or so, when suddenly I 
met Albee face to face as he came out of an alley. 
But I have never seen such a change in anyone 
in so short a time as I saw in him, with sunken, 
pale cheeks, haggard, wild eyes, beard a week old ; 
all his bluster and self-assurance seemed gone. 
He approached me timidly, and after salutations 
said : “I am in great trouble, Mr. Dowd, and as 
your instructions have assisted in bringing it on, 
I think it but fair that you should assist me out 
of it.” 

“Certainly,” I replied. “All that I can do I 
will do cheerfully, but I must first know every- 
thing in regard to your condition; you understand 
me ? Everything ! What is the matter with 
you ? You look sick.” 


INTRODUCTION. 


15 


I only wish I was sick ! ” he replied. ‘‘ I should 
have hopes of getting well, but there is no medi- 
cine that will down the Devil ! The Devil has got 
me ! that’s what’s the matter ! ” 

Sh ! Mr. Albee ! you don’t want to make 
an exhibition.” 

don’t care who hears it J ” said he vehe- 
mently. 

I saw he was getting excited, so, taking his 
arm, led him into the alley, saying, as we walked 
along : 

If you want my assistance you must becalm. 
Where were you going when we met ? ” 

Well, I had an idea of going to see old Father 
Eyan, the Catholic priest, to see if he couldft’t 
cast the Devil out of me ; you know they pretend 
to do such things.” 

‘^Now, Mr. Albee, to be candid with you, I 
think you are sick. Let us call into Dr. Parker’s 
office and consult him.” 

'' Ha ! what do you say ? All right, if you 
think best,” said he, ‘^but I warn you I shall 
tell him nothing.” 

''No ? then I’ll do the talking.” 

We soon reached the office. The doctor lay back 
in his easy-chair smoking a cigar. I took the 
doctor aside, and briefly explained the case so far 
as I knew. Upon our return to the room where 
Albee was waiting the doctor examined his 
tongue, felt his pulse, punched his stomach, etc., 
then commenced asking questions, to which Mr. 


16 


INTRODUCTION. 


Albee replied : “ There is nothing the matter with 
me, Doctor, only I have got a dose of Spiritism 
and the Devil has taken possession of me ! He 
won’t let me eat nor sleep. If I eat hy force he 
makes me vomit it all up ; if I fall asleep through 
exhaustion he awakens me hy pinching and hug- 
ging me.” 

Ha ! ha ! ” roared the doctor. Hugging 
you ? the Devil hugging you ? What do you 
mean, sir ? In what form is he ? ” 

^‘Oh, Doctor, don’t you see ? he comes in the 
form of a woman ! ” Mr. Alhee’s eyes grew 
bloodshot and wild as he uttered these words ; 
then rising from his chair, he said : ‘ ^ I see you 
do not understand. I am a widower, and haven’t 
known a woman carnally for fifteen years till this 
spell of Spiritism was put upon me, and now they 
come in troops into my room and bed when the 
windows are barred and my door double-locked ! 
Ah, it is of no use ! I am not sick ! I am lost ! ” 
And with a groan he sank into a chair. 

The Doctor looked at him piercingly a few 
moments, then turning to me said : ‘‘A clear 
case of hypnotism if I am any judge.” Then 
to Albee : What do you see in your room ? ” 

Nothing, sir ! I feel them.” 

Have you ever been hypnotized or mesmer- 
ized ? ” 

No ! I don’t believe in such nonsense as that ; 
that will do for weak women and children.” 

Hum ! ” said the doctor — “ a little blue mass 


INTRODUCTION. 


17 


to-night ; in the morning I would like to see you 
again ; an interesting case, truly,” as he turned 
to prepare the medicine. 

“Doctor,” I asked, “how can it be a case of 
hypnotism when he has never been in the state ? ” 

He replied : “I am not so sure of that ; some 
people fall into the state apparently quite natur- 
ally without being conscious of it. I should like 
to know, Mr. Albee, if anyone ever suggested to 
you that the Devil, as you call it, would visit 
you ? ” 

Albee started, looked at me and then at the 
Doctor, and faltered out : 

“Well, yes ; some weeks ago, in a conversation 
at Mr. Morrison’s flour store, a young man told 
me that the spirits might get hold of me some 
time, and if they did they would make me jingle 
to my heart’s content. Those were his exact 
words. I remember them well. You perhaps 
know the young man, Mr. Dowd ; you were there 
at the time.” 

“Yes, I know him— Don La Velle, an artist. 
You were discussing Spiritualism, and called 
spirits devils,” said I. 

“That explains the whole thing,” said the 
Doctor ; “ and this man La Velle is the one to de- 
lay pnotize him ; I can do it if he is willing to let 
me try, but this evening he is under too much 
mental excitement. Take this medicine to-night, 
friend Albee, and have a good night’s rest, and 
in the morn ” 


18 


INTRODUCTION. 


''I’ll do nothing of the kind, Doctor,” broke 
in Mr. Albee. "I am not sick, and as to having 
a night’s rest, it is impossible ; they will be 
there ! ” As he said this his eyes had a crazy 
look, which passed away, however, in a moment, 
as, turning to the doctor, he added : " As to hypno- 
tism, that is all bosh ; there isn’t a man or woman 
on earth that could mesmerize me ! ” 

With that he left the office, and I followed him. 
Together we went to La Velle’s studio, but a 
card tacked on the door told us that Don was 
gone to the country. As we parted for the night 
I urged him to tell me how he was affected, assur- 
ing him that I would do all in my power to assist 
him when I knew all the facts in the case. To 
this he shrugged his shoulders, and looked me 
straight in the eyes, saying : 

" I don’t doubt you in the least, but it is a long 
story, and you wouldn’t believe one-half of it, 
and possibly go and do as the others are doing — 
report ' Albee is crazy.’ But that man La Velle 
knows all about it, for he set them on to me. 

I’ll tell him the whole truth, and ” here he 

became vehement, paused as if choking down 
some emotion, then continued : "I am a poor 
man, Mr. Dowd ; all I’ve got in this world is my 
horse and buggy, and three or four clocks (he 
was a clock peddler and tinker), and I will freely 
give them all to be rid of these Devils.” With 
this he walked rapidly away. 

Several days thereafter Don returned, that is 


INTRODUCTION. 


19 


to say, I found him at his studio, but I am of the 
opinion that he had not been absent at all ; it was 
a way he had of having privacy and escaping 
annoyances. I soon found Mr. Albee, for he 
was on the alert, and together we entered the 
studio. I plainly saw how shocked Don was at 
the change in Mr. Albee. The red- faced, passion- 
ate bully had given place to a pale, cadaverous, 
broken-spirited old man ; yet his eye was clear 
and brilliant as anyone’s when not excited. He 
shook Don’s hand and begged pardon for his 
rudeness at the flour store, and said : 

‘^Now, Mr. La Velle, I cannot help thinking 
you have set the Devil on me. Don’t interrupt 
me, and I will explain all, and then if you can 
help me out of this trouble I will, as I told Mr. 
Dowd, give you all I have in this world.” 

He paused, and Don said : 

^‘Indeed lam not guilty of anything of the 
kind. But if I can do you any good I shall 
certainly do so without any reward whatever ; but 
you must tell me exactly how you are affected.” 


20 


INTRODUCTION. 


II. 

INTRODUCTION CONTINUED. 

MR. ALBEE’S story. 

Mr. Albee without further preface narrated 
the following : 

A few days after our meeting in the flour 
store, Mr. Morrison invited me upstairs to see 
the w’onderful performances of Planchette, and 
there I got what purported to be communications 
from my three dead wives. I had never, as I 
remember, told anyone in this city their names, 
and yet their names in full were signed to the 
communications. You can probably judge of my 
astonishment and the joy I felt in thus having 
all my unbelief and skepticism swept away by a 
sick girl, through such a simple thing as a block 
of wood and a pencil. All that I loved on earth 
has lain in the grave many years, and I little 
thought, when I entered that room, that the graves 
could give up their dead to speak words of cheer 
and hope to my declining years. After seeing 
her write I laid my hand upon the instrument, 
and, strange as it may appear, it wrote for me 
as well as it did for her. A happier man never 


INTRODUCTION, 


21 


walked than I, as I went to my room that night. 
After reading a chapter in my Bible and offering 
up a prayer, full of praise and thanksgiving to 
the good Grod, I thought to myself, ‘ If Blanchette 
could write, why, if I held the pencil in my hand, 
could not tlie spirits control my hand as well as 
Blanchette ? ’ So I held the pencil and waited re- 
sults. I had not to wait long. A kind of numb- 
ness stole over my hand and I sensed a cool breath 
over it, while it seemed as if a bandage was 
tightened around my arm above the wrist. But 
I calmly waited ; the pencil began to move, and, 
after a little practice, plain, legible writing, in 
my first wife’s handwriting, was produced. The 
communications were many — for I sat there till 
long after midnight — all breathing unchang- 
ing affection and assurances that there is no 
death, but a beautiful life of love and joy in the 
hereafter. The next day I met you, Mr. Dowd, 
and you bade me persevere and gave me direc- 
tions as to bathing, diet, fasting, etc. I followed 
your directions — ate no meat, drank nothing but 
cold waterj bathed daily, discarded all rich foods, 
and fasted three days out of seven. Every night 
I held seances, which all my wives regularly at- 
tended, and I was as well satisfied that the spirits 
communicating were my wives as I was of any- 
thing that I did not absolutely know. About a 
week after I had begun dieting, my wife (the 
first one) Mary Ann, wrote on the slate : ^ Dear 
John ! I am going to satisfy you beyond all doubt 


22 


INTRODUCTION. 


to-night — I am going to sleep with you, and 
prove that I am your loving wife — Mary Ann.’ 
Well, of course I did not imagine anything very 
remarkable in sleeping with invisible beings ; 
supposed it might be a dream or something of 
the kind. Scarcely had I got into bed that night, 
than I became aware that some person was lying 
by my side ! You may well be astonished, gentle- 
men — but I beg of you not to interrupt me ! ” 
(this he said because I made an effort to ask a 
question), ^^and I’ll make all things clear.” 

I looked in A1 bee’s eyes ; they were as clear and 
intelligent as any eyes I ever looked in. In spite 
of his request, I broke in by saying : 

^^Mr. Albee, we expect you to tell us nothing 
but the truth ; it is facts we want, and not fan- 
cies ! ” 

He replied : As I live and hope to live here- 
after, as I believe in God who hears me now, I 
state nothing but facts ; I would be glad if they 
were but fancies. You cannot put yourselves in 
my place ! It is impossible for you by any process 
of mind to conceive how I felt as I leaped from 
the bed, lit my lamp, and looked in the bed. Not 
a soul was there. Then I searched the room, 
though it was not much of a search, for it is a 
small bedroom, in the third story of the Ackley 
House, with one door opening into a narrow 
passage, and one window looking into the street, 
and they were both securely fastened. After 
satisfying myself that I was entirely alone, I sat 


INTRODUCTION. 


23 


down to think and get my nerves quiet, for I was 
trembling like a leaf in the wind. Soon my hand 
began to jerk, and, taking the pencil, I got this 
communication : ^Dear John ! My own sweet 
husband. Why were you frightened ? I told 
you I would sleep with you to-night ! The good 
Lord has permitted me to come to you to cheer 
you up ; for you are a good man ! Go to bed 
now, and don’t fear !’ signed Mary Ann. After 
a few moments I lay down in the bed with the 
lamp burning. All seemed right in the bed, and 
I extinguished the light ; but scarcely had I done 
so when there was the person again by my side. 
I assure you I am no coward, but it was as much as 
I could do to lie still and try to subdue the wild 
beating of my heart. Gradually I got control of 
myself enough to whisper, ‘ Is this really my wife 
Mary Ann ? ’ Almost immediately a little hand 
clasped mine, not a cold hand like that of a corpse, 
but a real, soft, warm hand, pulsating with life. 
Caressing the hand, which returned the caress 
with gentle pressure, I passed my hand along 
the arm to the shoulder, over her person to the 
neck, where I found a wart that she had when I 
married her. Gently she kissed me and caress- 
ingly lulled me to forgetfulness that I was in the 
arms of a ghost, and in that forgetfulness my 
age disappeared from my consciousness, and the 
passions of youth returned to me, which I in- 
dulged to the utmost. I closed not my eyes to 
sleep the long night through. As day was break- 


24 


INTRODUCTION. 


ing I heard something like a sigh, she arose from 
the bed and I lost her. All that day I was lost in 
wild dreams of future bliss. Oh, if she had only 
spoken one word my cup of bliss had been full 
to the brim. But alas ! there is more to come. 
If that one night with my first love were all, I 
should cherish it in memory as a glimpse of par- 
adise, never to be forgotten and never to be re- 
gretted ; but the next night, instead of one there 
came two, and both were my wives and insisted 
upon asserting their rights. That first night’s 
experience had dispelled all my fears and I knew 
what to expect. There was no sleep that night. 
They faded away in the morning while clasped 
in my ^arrns. After they were gone, exhausted 
nature asserted her rights and I slept nearly all 
day. 

^‘Now, gentlemen, you may be interested to 
know my feelings during these experiences. W ell, 
after the first shock was over, I seemed to adapt 
myself to circumstances ; all timidity was gone, 
and I entered into the spirit of the debauch with 
as much zest as the women themselves. On the 
second night, when I found two in my bed, and 
also the third night, when the three wives were 
there, it is true I felt a little delicate ; but when 
I realized that the women had no modesty and 
no delicacy of feeling in the least, I soon fell into 
the same mood. I was so intoxicated, and the 
sensations were so exhilarating, that I was like a 
madman, and still I was as sane as ever ; but the 


INTRODUCTION. 


25 


contact of their persons sent such thrills of 
pleasure through me that I lost all control of 
myself. It far exceeded anything I ever ex- 
perienced. And even now, with all the horror of 
this thing in my mind, there is an undercurrent 
of pleasurable feelings of what is waiting for me 
to-night. It may seem impossible to you, hut in 
their company, with their magnetic power (for I 
can term it nothing else), there seems no limit to 
my virility, and no diminution of pleasure. This 
thing has been going on over two weeks, and you 
see before you the wreck of what I was. These 
hollow cheeks, this crazy look that turns my 
friends aside, all attest the truth of what I have 
told you. You ask me why I haven’t broken this 
thing up ? I have tried. I sleep generally most 
of the day, and when I wake the horror of my- 
self comes over me to such an extent that if it 
were not for the fear of an angry God I should 
commit suicide ; all my early training, my 
religious professions, my horror of licentiousness, 
and the strictness of my celibacy for fifteen years, 
mock me. Then I fall upon my knees and ask 
God to deliver me from Satan and restore my 
innocence and purity. I read the book of Daniel 
and ask God to send some bright angel to me as 
he once sent to Daniel, and then the thought 
comes to me, ‘ You are not Daniel ! you are lost ! ’ 
for indeed I cannot but feel that such orgies as 
I indulge in, though it he with the spirits of my 
wives, cannot be otherwise than such as belong 


26 


INTRODUCTION. 


to hell ! And so I thought to go back to my 
former habits, eating and drinking as usual. 
The first thing that made me try this was the 
loss of confidence in the spirits ; they began to 
tell me lies, and when I caught them at it, they 
simply laughed, ^ Ha ! ha ! ha ! ’ — for you know, 
I used to sit hours with pencil in hand for them 
to write. I soon found, however, that I could not 
return to my former diet. Every piece of meat 
I took in my mouth seemed like so much cotton, 
and in my desperation, if I swallowed it I was 
compelled immediately to vomit ; so all I can eat 
is a little rice or some crackers and milk. It was 
at this time that I invoked the prayers of my 
church. But my brethren have reported all over 
that I am going insane. This provoked more 
laughter from the spirits. They promise fairly 
enough, in answer to my prayers, to go away and 

stay, but they come back to laugh and Oh ! 

if God loved me he would send some bright spirit 
to protect me. But these spirits say they are 
sent by the good Lord. I don’t believe a word of 

it ; if anyone has sent them it is the D 

Stop ! ” cried Don, I won’t have them called 
ill names, Mr. Albee, and if you desire my assist- 
ance you will certainly respect my wishes. I will 
do all I can for you, but you must understand 
this : there is nothing done on earth contrary to 
God’s will. If, for some inscrutable purpose. He 
afflicts you, or, which is the same thing, permits 
others to do so, it is punishment for sins you have 


INTRODUCTION. 


27 


committed. But we will not discuss the subject 
now. Come here to-morrow night and get your 
wives to come also. You had better not go to bed 
to-night, or, if you do, leave your lamp burning.” 

Indeed, I have done so several times,” cried 
Mr. Albee, but as soon as I fall into a doze it 
goes out, and the wives are there. I have walked 
the floor several nights till so weak I could scarcely 
stand. I think they take the strength out of me 
whenever they like, for there is a feeling like 
suction, or as if I was h^ing cupped, sometimes 
in my neck, hands, or face, and then I get weak.” 

Punctual to the time came Mr. Albee. I had 
secured two young girls (my own daughters) to 
sit in the circle with us. We sat around a center- 
table ; two girls, Mr. Albee, Don, and I. On the 
table were pencil and paper. We sat for fifteen 
or twenty minutes without a sign ; then Mr. 
Albee’s hand began to jerk, and grasping the 
pencil wrote, ‘^We are all here; what do you 
want of us ? ” Signed Mary Ann. Mr. Albee’s 
breathing was labored, hut he was fully conscious. 
The answers of the wives were written promptly 
and rapidly, while Don’s questions were spoken 
in a low tone of voice. 

Don. We want you to leave your husband in 
peace. 

Spirits. Why, we never quarrel with him ! 
But we have permission to visit him, and we in- 
tend to stay, for all you can say or do. 

Don. Do you love your husband ? 


28 


INTRODUCTION. 


Spirits. Certainly ! we are married to him. 

Don. Don’t ■ you see you are injuring his 
health ? Do you want to make him insane ? 

Spirits. Oh, bosh ! he is as capable as any 
man ; no danger of his going insane about a 
little love ; have we not lived with him and died 
trying to satisfy his love, as he called it ? He 
never could he satisfied ; what did he care for our 
.broken health ? And now we have come to 
satisfy him, and you want to drive us away ! 

Don. But he is satisfied ; he thinks you are 
devilish spirits. 

Spirits. Oh! he is a saint, is he? Well, we 
are as good as he is ; at least we don’t pretend to 
be what we are not. He wore us out while he 
had the power, and said it was love made him do 
it ; now we have the power ; that which is good 
for the goose is good for the gander.” 

Don. Then it isn’t altogether love for Mr. 
Albee that induced you to come ; I infer that 
you take pleasure in his misery. 

Spirits. Now, look here, Mister ! We have 
found out that there is no Devil except man’s 
lust, pride, avarice, and selfishness, and the Devil 
of married life is the husband’s owning the 
wives. We don’t owe Mr. Albee any ill-will ; it 
is in mercy we come, to free him from lust and a 
false idea of the Father. No man can have a 
good idea of God whose soul is on fire with lust ; 
have we not seen how he has longed for his wives 
all the past fifteen years ? It was only fear of 


INTRODUCTION. 


29 


an angry God and a burning hell that kept him 
from brothels. Celibacy, indeed ! celibacy is of 
the soul, not of the body ! 

Don. Now, Sisters, I see you are reasonable. 
Let us compromise this matter. You don’t want 
to ruin him, and I think his lesson has been 
severe enough. What say you to this plan : take 
turns in visiting him ? 

The pencil stood still for a few moments.' 
Don with an eagle’s gaze was scanning the face 
of Mr. Albee, who was wholly absorbed in con- 
templating the paper, apparently an uninterested 
spectator. At this point one of my daughters 
began to nod, and I dismissed them. 

At last the pencil moved again. 

Spirits. We will agree to that for one week, 
provided he will continue communications. 

Don. Certainly, but I must notify you that 
this compact will be sent to the one who permits 
you to visit him, ^^to her who is nameless,” and 
if it is broken by any one of you, I will take steps 
to send you all away entirely ; now good-night ! ” 

This ended the first seance. One week from 
that time we held another, and after much dis- 
cussion and objection got another concession, 
limiting the visits to 'once a week for each wife. 
At parting that night Don said to Mr. Albee : 

^^Lest they should break this compact, there 
will be a man in the bed with you on the nights 
wherein you are to be left alone ; fear not, you 
will be protected ! ” 


30 


INTRODUCTION. 


Mr. Albee assured me afterward that such was 
the fact, and expressed the suspicion that it was 
Don himself. He said : I woke up in the night 
and found a man lying by my side, with his arm 
thrown across me.” 

We held many seances ; in the lapse of time, 
and with many arguments, we gradually under- 
mined the influence they had over Mr. Albee, and 
‘they left him thoroughly rejuvenated, his com- 
plexion clear and bright-, excitability toned down 
to zero. He loved his Bible, if possible, more 
than ever, and said : find Spiritualism on 

every page of it ; passages that formerly were 
void of meaning are now as plain as the noon- 
day sun. I never attend church, for I am in 
church all the time. I see and hear spirits as I 
go about my business, and often hear the sweet- 
est music imaginable. I am the happiest man 
that lives, as I am never alone ; and I thank God 
for the three wives. I am healed of a skin dis- 
ease, pronounced incurable, that has afflicted me 
for thirty years ; my flesh is as smooth as an in- 
fant’s.” 

This story of Mr. Albee and the three wives 
has been introduced in order to show the possibil- 
ities of our natures. Standing, as we do, upon 
the verge of another existence, of the nature of 
which we know so little, any little fact like this 
is of inestimable value. Nor is this an isolated 
case. A widow told my wife not many years 


INTRODUCTION. 


31 


ago, that she had, at the time, a nocturnal visitor, 
who came into her room regardless of bolts and 
bars, to whose embraces she was obliged to 
submit, when she (as she said with eyes full of 
tears) would rather have died. Poor, hel])less 
woman, apparently as sane as anyone ! Scores 
of such hapless creatures consulted the late Dr. 
Newton, '' the great healer,” and he cast out ''the 
devils.” It seems to me as if there are two kinds 
of obsession : 

1st, Objective, as when the spirits are external, 
and merely manifest themselves by controlling the 
body. 

2d, Subjective, as where the sensitive vacates 
the body, as Ina did, and the obsessing spirit, en- 
tering in, takes full control, thus personating the 
sensitive or anyone they choose. It is this latter 
class we term insane. 

Most of the fiendish rapes as well as other 
crimes committed are due to obsessing spirits. 
But who has pity for criminals ? 

This may seem an unreasonable and unwar- 
rantable assertion, but consider ! The seminal life 
of a man is composed of countless spirits, some of 
which are born into this world embodied spirits. 
What have they been before this incarnation ? 
Where do they come from f Spirit is formless, 
fioating around a nucleus, a spermatazoid, un- 
conscious, yet possessing in its constituents all 
the crime and vileness of a former embodiment, 
the Karma of previous lives. Spirit gravitates 


32 


INTRODUCTION. 


to these bodies, which it vitalizes. But it is not 
always your own spirit which acts. For in- 
stance : fill your stomach with alcohol, and you 
are not yourself ; instead of incorporating the 
spirit of alcohol into your spirit and using it as 
yours, it has taken your spirit in possession, and 
some other spirit aside from your own is using 
you ! In like manner, he who fills his mind with 
the wines of hell, by thinking ill of others, by lies, 
lewd thoughts, and vain imaginings, invites 
spirits from the dark abyss, who take possession 
of him to his ruin. It is kindly acts, generous, 
friendly thoughts, a forgiving, charitable, gentle 
nature, that invite bright, happy, angelic spirits, 
who become incorporated into our own, not to use 
us, but that they may be part and parcel of us, 
for our use, and for the good of all. These bodies 
are the houses in which we live. Guests some- 
times call on us, whether invited or not, and we 
little know their nature till we have proved them. 

This accidental call at Morrison’s flour store led 
to an intimate friendship between Don La Velle 
and the writer — a friendship which knit two 
kindred souls into one, so far as this life, with its 
ups and downs, its varied experiences, will admit 
of. At his request I have penned the following 
narration, from incidents furnished mainly by 
himself. Of his truth and veracity I have no 
doubt. That some will doubt many of the state- 
ments made herein is expected, hut the insuffi- 
ciency of the communications received from the 


INTRODUCTION. 


83 


other side the grave is too apparent to the 
deeply earnest inquirer to be a matter of question. 
Happy is he who pauses at the threshold, after 
becoming thoroughly satisfied that our departed 
friends live after death, and asks no questions as 
to how they live over there. Incredible as Don’s 
statements may appear, they commend themselves 
to the thoughtful as much as, or even more than, 
the revelations of Gautama, Swedenborg, and 
A. J. Davis ; for this difference is presented: Don 
was not a hypnotic subject, while the others, 
with the exception of Buddha, were subject to 
trances, and told what they saw and heard while 
in the trance ; which certainly opens the way to 
the question, Did they see literal, actual things, or 
were their visions the conjuring of a clever hyp- 
notist, either in the form or out ? The theories ad- 
vanced may be objected to, but the same objection 
applies to those of Swedenborg. He was certainly 
a theorist, as demonstrated by his assertion that the 
universe is in the form of a man, which neither he 
nor any angel could possibly know except by hear- 
say. Again, how much his conversation with 
angels may have been colored by his peculiar mind 
in the transcribing is open to conjecture. Human 
nature presents a complex study, and it will not 
do to pass by any phase of it too lightly. The 
Double Man commends itself to your best 
thought, and, thus contemplated, it will be of 
service to you. 


3 


F. B. Dowd. 


34 


TllE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTEE I. 

A MAGICIAN. 

In one of the rooms on the third floor of 29 
Boylston St., Boston, one cold morning in March, 
near the close of the great war of Secession, 
sat a man looking over a pile of letters which 
the postman had just laid upon his table. 

His dark complexion, curly hair, black eyes, 
flat nose, large mouth, and thick lips suggested 
African blood ; while his broad, square forehead, 
wide-set eyes, with their piercing look, coupled 
with the fascinating smile that wreathed his 
amorous mouth at times, showed the finer blood 
of the Anglo-Saxon race. This man was P. B. 
Eandolph, a man in whom the blood of different 
races boiled like the lava of a volcano. His 
nature was electrical, volcanic. A man of moods, 
there was for him no middle ground ; he was 
either in Heaven or in Hell. Love to him was 
a passion ; its indulgence, like everything else, 
was in the extreme, hence he was love-hungry 
and love-starved. Always longing, never satis- 
fied, a prey to extreme imagination, lofty in ambi- 
tion, hut constantly humiliated on account of his 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


35 


color, denied the position in society to which his 
genius entitled him, it is not strange that he be- 
came morbidly sensitive, envious, and full of hate. 
Naturally mediumistic and at times clairvoyant; 
superstitious, as all of the African race are ; he 
was a fatalist, and imagined that he had existed 
on this earth previously, and that he was born of 
mixed blood as a punishment for crimes he had 
committed then. Soft and tender as a mother at 
times, his great heart would melt with tears, only 
to be burned and dried up a moment later by the 
fierce fires of anger at himself and creation. He 
was a medium of rare abilities, an intuitive 
reader of character, and a subject of obsession ; he 
predicted his own death by his own hand, and 
came near fixing the exact time. Such was Dr. 
Eandolph as I knew him. Born of poor and 
obscure parentage, reared in the slums of New 
York, a newsboy, a bootblack, a barber, a 
waiter at a restaurant, without education, he 
acquired the best. Without a chance in life he 
became one of the most learned men of his day. 
He had a magic tongue, could speak many langu- 
ages, possessed a memory of ideas and words truly 
marvelous, and was a public speaker superior to 
most. Without friends or money he traveled 
over Europe, Asia, and America, gathering know- 
ledge as a bee gathers honey. 

But with all his genius and all his acqviirements, 
he did not acquire that urbanity of temper, that 
magnanimity of nature, which every gentleman 


36 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


must have to entitle him to recognition in society ; 
and instead of attributing this to the true cause 
he attributed it to his color. Socially, as in every- 
thing else, he was an extremist. A warm, self- 
sacrificing friend, a jovial, laughing comrade, a 
vindictive and unforgiving enemy, an egotist, 
ready to be insulted where no insult was intended, 
it is no wonder that he became addicted to the use 
of strong drink. 

But I am not writing the biography of Dr. 
Randolph, but merely giving a glimpse of the 
man who made this story possible. 

As he sorted the letters, he tossed such as 
contained neither money nor stamps into the 
waste-basket. After perusing such as he had 
selected he safe for a moment looking steadily at 
the wall, upon which was pasted a circular card 
with a black dot in the center of it. For only a 
moment he gazed, then shuddering and gasping a 
few long-drawn breaths, his head sank upon the 
desk. Only a moment he lay thus ; then rising 
upright, with his face turned upward and his eyes 
rolled back till the black orbs were hidden, a 
smile wreathing his swarthy features, he seemed 
to be another man. He was, indeed, for the 
moment transformed. His face seemed to lose its 
dusky hue ; a glad, joyous look illuminated it, as 
he stretched out his hand, like one who meets a 
dearly loved and long absent friend, and he mur- 
mured, Mother.” Then a vision came. This is 
what he saw : the room in which he sat had dis- 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


37 


appeared ; in its place gigantic mountains pierced 
the clouds, vast forests clothed their rugged sides, 
and rank vegetation obscured the vista. Silvery 
streams of water leaped and laughed down the 
mountain-sides, over rocks and under logs, lost 
here, appearing there, hurrying onward and 
downwards — where to and wherefore ? 

In the midst of this luxuriant waste stood a 
man looking upwards as if listening to the songs 
of birds that fluttered from limb to limb in the 
trees. He was a young man, of low stature, well 
built, strong of limb, broad-shouldered, deep- 
chested, with lofty forehead and an intellectual 
cast of countenance. 

Then Eandolph, going nearer, saw that the 
man was literally bound fast by a spider-web, 
gauzy network, or scarcely perceptible atten- 
uated threads, attached to every hair of his head 
and every nerve of his body, and made fast to 
the ground, the trees, grass, weeds, and creeping 
things ; and yet the young man seemed uncon- 
scious of such bondage. 

Anon Eandolph became conscious of turning a 
grindstone, sharpening a huge knife ; and as the 
bright sparks flew from the blade they formed 
themselves in letters above the young man’s head, 
spelling out the name ^^Don La Velle ! The 
Double Man ! ” Then a voice sounded low and 
sweet in Eandolph’s ear, ‘^Cut him loose!” 
Automatically, Eandolph’s hand sought the 
waste-basket, and brought forth a letter re- 


38 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


jected because it contained no stamps. This is 
the letter : 


“ St. Louis, Mo., March 1, 1864. 

“ Mr. P. B. Randolph, 

“ Boston, Mass. 

“Dear Sir: — Please excuse me for addressing you. 
M}'^ only excuse is my admiration of your matchless 
writings, and the fascination the Rosicrucian ideas 
therein contained have for me. I would like to become 
a member of that Mystic Order, if I may be consid- 
ered worthy of a humble place therein. As you are 
the head of the Boston Club, I presume that you can 
advise me of the steps necessary to take, the qualifi- 
cations, fees, etc. If so, please let me hear from you 
at an early date, and greatly oblige, 

“Yours respectfully, 

“Don LaVelle.” 

Randolph perused the letter, then springing 
from his chair danced around the room snap- 
ping his fingers and singing (like any plantation 
darkey) Out of the v^ilderness ! Out of the 
wilderness, ha ! ha ! Out of the wilderness, 
ha, ha, ha ! ” Of a sudden he paused in his 
antics, looked up at the ceiling, while a heavenly 
smile illuminated his dark countenance, and he 
gasped out in a scarce audible voice : ‘‘Great God ! 
is it possible that the spell is broken — the curse 
lifted from off my wearied soul ? Six thousand 
years have I waited for this one ! and now at last 
comes ‘ the double man I’’ No ! he is the eighth ! 
We must wait for the ninth ! Great God ! how 
long, oh, how long ? ” His head sank upon his 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


39 


bosom, a deathly pallor stole over liis face. Beat- 
ing upon his chest he staggered to his seat, as I 
have seen him stagger when personating the 
Wandering Jew upon the stage. 

Only for a brief moment thus he sat, then 
reaching to a little cupboard he took therefrom 
a flask of brandy, and drank heavily. Having 
replaced the bottle he seized his pen and wrote 
the following letter to Don La Velle : 

“ Dear Sir, — You will be accepted when you comply 
with the following rules : |25 must accompany your 
application. Not that money can buy a membership ; 
it takes brains and souls to open ‘ the door' I know 
you ; you have those two requisites, but little cash ; 
still you must do your part towards sustaining the 
work. I said I know you ! So I do, but you have for- 
gotten our parting 6,000 years ago at the tomb of Osiris 
— ‘ him v^ho sleeps on Philce' I have not forgotten ! 
Furthermore, if those things that happened so long 
ago in old Egypt have faded from your recollection, 
you have retrograded intellectually ; how about your 
will? Have you ever tamed a virago of a wife by force 
of will ? Have you ever subdued a wild beast of the 
jungle, so that he would lie down and sleep at your 
feet ? You have been a king, and can be so again if 
you like, but that is no evidence of progression, rather 
the reverse. When a king, did you strut in gorgeous 
apparel that others made by hard work, in tears with- 
out bread ? Were you puffed up by the plaudits of 
the people you governed with a standing army ? 
When you were a king did you free the slaves and 
make the poor happy ? or did you enslave the masses 
by taxation so that you could live in idleness, and par- 
ade in pomp and splendor ? 

“ The spirit of earth is tainted with the blood of 
countless millions, all young men, who have been 


40 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


hurled into untimely graves through the rapacity and 
greed of kings. Do you take pride in having been one 
of them or a supporter of them ? I ask you these ques- 
tions, for I fain would learn what marks your innu- 
merable births have made upon your soul since we 
parted, so that I shall know where to place you in 
‘ the Temple of the Rosy Cross.’ I await your answer. 

. “ P. B. Ra^^dolph. 

“ /| try.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


41 


CHAPTEE IL 

DON LA VELLE AND THE FROG MAN. 

In an upper room of a three-story building was 
Don La Velle’s studio. He was a painter of por- 
traits, though of no marked ability in that line ; but 
being of an imaginative and poetic turn of mind 
he loved his art, and eked out a living by the 
strictest economy and close application to busi- 
ness. All the spare change he got he invested in 
books ; of these he had quite a collection, though 
it was remarkable that none of them treated of 
painting. They were of a scientific and philo- 
sophic nature, with here and there a work on 
Occultism, Hypnotism, etc. 

The studio was neat and tastily arranged, 
although there were no rich or luxurious hang- 
ings or furniture. A few chairs, an old well- 
worn lounge, a mirror, a washstand, and a few 
paintings, some hanging and others standing 
against the wall, were the only things in sight, 
except his easel, upon which was a painting appar- 
ently just begun of a young girl with long golden 
ringlets, merely ‘Haid in.” Such was the place 
where Don worked and lived. A curtain screened 


42 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


one corner of the room where he slept, while in 
the other corner was a small room which he 
styled his laboratory. On a dark, foggy, and 
rainy morning the postman brought Don the 
letter from Dr. Kandolph. The room was cheer- 
less enough ; the only light came through a sky- 
light, now clouded with rain and fog. The stove 
was scarcely warm, for Don had very little coal, 
and he was pacing up and down the room with 
his overcoat on and his hands in his pockets to 
keep warm. A thoughtful, gloomy look sat upon 
his face as he walked with his eyes fixed upon the 
fioor. Don was about twenty- four years of age, 
slender, with broad shoulders, short neck, round, 
deep chest, high, round forehead, straight brows, 
large eyes, blue-gray and wide apart ; height, 
scarce five feet six. In repose his countenance 
was calm, pleasant, but grave. When excited, his 
wide-open eyes showed forth an intensity of soul 
seldom met, and his countenance assumed all the 
intensity he felt, so much so as to be often forbid- 
ding and repellent. His nose was wide, nostrils 
expanded, mouth hidden under a thick moustache, 
chin small and pointed, covered with a fine brown 
beard. He gave one the impression at sight of 
a man top-heavy, whose face was mainly above 
his eyes. His broad, deep chest, and short, thick 
neck showed a strong animal nature, while his 
weak chin and high head showed correspondingly 
strong spiritual tendencies. Don was intellectual, 
through not in the ordinary sense of the word. He 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


43 


was not a learned man, and his mind disdained 
to be bound by what others thought, wrote, or 
said. He was a dreamer both asleep and awake, 
and his ideas were strangely mingled with impres- 
sions received while in both states. 

Don and I had been intimate friends for many 
years, and there were no secrets between us. I 
have been thus minute in describing him because 
of the strange events to be chronicled in this tale, 
as well as the many strange ideas enunciated 
herein. Sad and grave, he was known by hut 
few, and was always a marked man, sometimes 
disliked by others without a cause. He often said 
that this was because he was not of this world. 

On the morning that Don received Dr. Ean- 
dolph’s letter he was terribly disheartened. He 
read it slowly, then sank upon the lounge with a 
groan. “Twenty-five dollars,” he muttered, 
“and I haven’t twenty-five cents to buy coal to 
warm this room ! I might make some money if 
I had a little warmth so I could handle the brush. ” 
And he looked lovingly at the picture of the 
young girl on the easel. As he approached it he 
got an idea. Pulling his hat down and button- 
ing his coat he started for the door. But at that 
moment there came a rap and Dr. Parker came 
in. An imperceptible shudder swept over Don 
as the doctor entered. 

As Dr. Parker is one of the characters of this 
story, let me introduce him to the reader. A 
man of medium height, strong, well-built, a little 


44 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


inclined to obesity ; broad shoulders, a large head, 
poised upon a short, thick neck that seemed to 
recede into his shoulders, for he had a habit of 
raising his naturally high shoulders, when speak- 
ing ; black hair and mustache, black, piercing 
eyes, deep set under black, beetling eyebrows 
that almost met ; a broad, heavy, low forehead, 
heavy base brain, but low. His manners were 
severe and courteous, though inclined to empha- 
size his own importance. His walk, the flourish of 
his cane, in fact every gesture, impressed you as 
of one self-poised, of a strong will, a popular and 
prosperous man. Such was Dr. Parker. After 
the usual salutation, he approached the easel and 
said : 

see you have done a little on Ina’s picture. 
If you succeed in making a lifelike portrait of 
her it will go far to make your fortune, sir. I 
shall take her to Europe next year and if it is a 
success I will enter it in the Academy.” 

Thank you,” said Don. can hardly hope 
to do that young lady justice. But as it is I can 
do no work so long as this abominable weather 
holds.” 

Why, what is the matter?” said the doctor, 
as his neck grew palpably shorter, and his should- 
ers higher. 

‘‘The matter,” said Don, “is simply this: it 
is too cold to work without a Are, and I have no 
money to procure coal ; painting brings no money 
till complete, and even then it depends upon 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


45 


success. No, I must write for the papers till I 
get a stake or the weather moderates. So, you 
see, I may not be able to finish the portrait in 
time for your trip. ” 

Oh ! is that all ? ” said the doctor ; and taking 
out his pocket-book he placed a five-dollar bill by 
the picture, saying : Take this as an earnest, 

to be returned if you fail.” 

^^But,” said Don, ‘^wait a minute.” 

But the doctor was already out of the room, 
whistling and swinging his cane as he strode 
away. 

Don looked at the money a long time and it 
cost him a struggle to take it. At last he picked 
it up, saying, “This, I suppose, is the price the 
doctor puts upon me. Well, I suppose every man 
has his price. ” 

Don procured his coal, and on his way home, 
in the thick fog and sleet that were blowing, he 
came upon a thing that looked a little like a man, 
raking rags and papers from the gutter, in which 
he stood in the water half up to his knees. 

The thing had feet, legs, and body somewhat 
like a man, but the legs came out of the body 
nearly at the middle, and there was only a little 
space between the legs and arms. His arms were 
long, and as he raked he reminded Don of a huge 
toad or frog just ready to leap. 

As Don paused in front of him he looked up 
and showed a low, receding forehead, surmounted 
by bristling hair that stuck up, small, watery 


46 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


eyes, a pug nose, protruding mouth, drawn to 
one side, and a receding chin that seemed to be a 
part of a long neck, flexible like a serpent’s body. 
Don leaned against a lamp-post and watched him 
at work. Occasionally a dirty rag would be borne 
along by the rushing water, and quick as lightning 
the thing would snap it in, as a toad would a fly. 
Don wished to hear him speak, feeling assured 
that he would croak like any frog, so, taking the 
last quarter he had out of his pocket, he asked : 

Are you hungry, old man ?” 

The head erected itself by a bend of the neck, 
without changing the position of the body in the 
least, and a hoarse, guttural response came out of 
the hideous mouth without the movement of a 
muscle : Yes, sir.” 

^^Take this, then,” and Don tossed the quarter 
to him, which he snapped as he did the floating 
rags. 

Young man, you are wasting charity on such 
a thing as that. He is a nuisance. The authori- 
ties ought not to allow such a thing as that to 
pollute a fashionable thoroughfare like this, where 
ladies and gentlemen are wont to promenade. 
He ought to be in the workhouse.” 

Don turned and stood face to face with the 
Eev. Dr. Watson, pastor, at five thousand dollars 
a year, of the most fashionable church in the 
city. 

beg your pardon, sir,” said Don ; he is a 
poor harmless thing, and evidently he has not 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


47 


been out of a frog pond very long, as he is not far 
removed from those fellows in De Soto’s pond, 
whom you can hear, if you will listen, even now, 
chanting God’s praise, and not unmusically either, 
to one whose soul is attuned to harmony. Besides, 
he is God’s child, as well as you and I, and he said 
he was hungry.” 

The parson looked at Don in utter astonish- 
ment for a moment, then said : 

Sir, you are irreverent ; frogs cannot be said 
to chant God’s praise. I fear you do not attend 
church, and have too low an estimate of our holy 
religion.” 

No,” said Don, I have too high an estimate 
of true religion to support or countenance hypoc- 
risy in any form.” 

‘MVell said,” replied the parson, ‘^but really, 
sir, I cannot understand what you mean ? ” 

mean,” said Don, looking him straight in 
the face, that you preach the observance of the 
Sabbath day, while at the same time you get a 
salary of five thousand dollars yearly for work 
done mainly on that day. That is what I call 
hypocrisy ! Is that religion ? ” 

Young man, it is a waste of time to talk with 
you. I perceive you are in the gall of bitterness. 
Let me warn you to flee from the wrath to come 

ere it be too late ; let me ” 

Oh ! ” said Don, with sudden earnestness, I 
would rather flee from present wrath than from 
some future contingency that may never come ! 


48 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Besides, I don’t believe in Divine wrath, any- 
way.” But the parson was moving off. 

Meantime, when the parson spoke of the work- 
house, the frog-man had gathered up his sack of 
rags and disappeared in the fog, going apparently 
on all fours. Don went his way, and his thoughts 
ran thus : ^‘This fog is thick enough to cut with 
a knife, and yet it penetrates everywhere. It is 
a physical fact. There must be mental as well as 
material fog.” And then his mind took a step 
further and asked, Is there also a spiritual fog ? 
and am I in that, as I think the parson must be ? ” 
These thoughts puzzled Don not a little. As he 
walked along, his mind involuntarily formulated 
this prayer: ^^0 God! give me knowledge! 
Lead me injbo the clear light of truth ! ” Don 
was a truthful, straightforward young man. He 
loved truth and despised hypocrisy and double- 
dealing in all shapes. But with all this he had 
never thought of Truth in its spiritual aspect, 
and loved it in a merely selfish way, thanking 
God in his heart, as did the Pharisee in the 
Temple — thank thee, 0 God, that I am not as 
other men ! ” Don longed for power, and im- 
agined that knowledge led thereto. He imagined 
that he wanted power for an unselfish purpose, 
when in point of fact he had never in his life 
loved anyone except himself. He did not know 
that truth hides itself in love, and that the knowl- 
edge leading thereto is an experience of the heart 
and not of the brain. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


49 


CHAPTER III. 

THE MAN WITH THE SLOUCH HAT AND CLOAK. 

It was late in the day when Don reached his 
studio. He was busy starting a fire when the 
door opened and a man in a slouch hat, pulled 
down over his face, and wrapped in an ample 
cloak, walked unbidden into the room. He took 
a step or two, then bowed, saying, 

I beg pardon for intruding, young man. I 
wish to examine some of your work, and noticing 
the door ajar, I thoughtlessly came in without 
knocking.” 

It is no intrusion, sir,” said Don ; beg of 
you not to think of it. My studio is free to vis- 
itors at all hours in the day. I have a few fin- 
ished pictures ; take a look at them,” waving his 
hand toward the wall, where a few samples hung, 
and at the same time shoving aside a screen used 
to modify the light while he painted. 

The stranger, however, did not inspect the wall 
pictures, but sat down in front of the easel, close 
beside the screen. Don noticed that he kept his 
face turned away and the hat still slouched low 
over his eyes. He sat silently scanning the picture 
4 


60 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


on the easel, drumming with his fingers on the 
chair for a few moments, and then said : 

‘‘I saw you on the street, in the fog, talking 
to a minister and looking at a ragpicker. The 
fog is a strange thing,” he said, as if speaking to 
himself, and never looking at Don. ‘‘It is pro- 
lific. It is full of sounds and strange beings. 
Did you never feel, as you walked in the semi- 
darkness, as though some one was beside you, 
and you turned to see who it was ? ” 

“Why, yes,” said Don, “many times; but I 
don’t know that that is very strange ; it comes 
from peculiar nervous sensibility, I suppose.” 

“ Not altogether,” replied the stranger ; “ some 
people attract strange things, while others repel 
them. As I said, the fog is prolific ; it is full of 
the denizens of other states of being, who take 
advantage of such peculiar conditions of the 
atmosphere, when the electrical rays of the sun 
do not disturb it, to visit and become partly or 
wholly visible to such as they are attracted to. 
Undoubtedly sensitiveness has much to do with 
the perception or cognition of these things, but 
nevertheless the fact remains that there are people, 
not remarkably sensitive, who are surrounded 
by devilish infiuences, especially at night, which 
continually lead them into trouble ; while others 
are constantly guarded and protected in danger. 
Do you think you were talking to an ordinary 
man — the ragpicker ? ” 

“Why, what do you mean?” said Don, now 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


51 


thoroughly interested. Of course he was rather 
extraordinary-looking, I admit, hut he was gotten 
up like all the rest of us, for indeed there are 
no two of us exactly alike. You seem to convey 
the idea that the ragpicker was composed of 
more subtile elements than we are, and that he 
belongs to another state of being.” 

“Aye, truly,” interrupted the stranger, “to 
another condition of the same state of being. 
All life is the same, no matter in what form it 
may appear to us ; and it is the same when form- 
less and invisible. Young man, form is de- 
pendent upon life ! Life is not dependent upon 
anything. All forms depend upon vibrations for 
their perpetuity ; the slower the vibrations, the 
less change in the form. The more life in a form, 
the greater and more rapid the vibrations. That 
ragpicker, ugly and uncouth as he appeared to 
you, contained more life than ten ordinary men ; 
but no matter for that, his external form will dis- 
appear from sight whenever it comes in contact 
with electrical vibrations exceeding its own, just 
as a lump of sugar dissolves in water, or a piece 
of gold dissolves in a current of electricity. Bnt 
the real man, the ini er form, remains after the 
dissolution of the outer form, although invisible 
to us.” 

“But why invisib'e?” asked Dowd. “I am 
satisfied that spirits exist, but they are without 
form, and do not exist on earth ; they 

“ How do you know ? ” interrupted the stranger; 


52 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


it because your poor eyes cannot see beyond 
the surface of things ? Know this, young man : 
anything that does not reflect light cannot be 
seen. Now a spirit-form vibrates so rapidly that 
no light can be reflected from it ; consequently it 
is invisible to eyesight. Those things that appear 
to us as spirits are merely forms, got up for some 
purpose, extracted from surrounding elements, 
such as this fog, for instance.” 

‘‘Do you mean to say, then,” said Don, with 
wide-open eyes staring at the stranger, whose 
gaze was flxed upon the skylight — “ do you mean 
to say, then, that the ragpicker was one of these 
forms ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“ Has he once lived and died ? ” asked Don, “ and 
was he a ragpicker then as now ? ” 

Meantime, the evening sun was slowly drawing 
the fog ; the rain had ceased, and the skyliglit 
grew a shade clearer, upon which the stranger 
gazed intently. He fldgeted in his chair, seemed 
to grow nervous, and spoke rapidly, as if in a 
hurry : 

“ I see you do not understand. That man may 
never have been born of a woman, possibly may 
have no conscious existence at all ; he may have 
been merely called into existence for an hour, a 
mere thing, a machine, acted upon by an intelli- 
gence beyond our comprehension, for some purpose 
hidden in the fogs of the future. God only knows. 
He will dissolve the moment the sun strikes him. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


53 


The frog and toad element predominated in his 
make-up. Did you not notice that he stood not 
erect like a man, and that his face always looked 
downwards ? And he did not walk, but hopped ; 

and did not his voice croak like ” He stopped 

short, rose from his chair, with an effort stammer- 
ing out, f-fe-ar th-at IVe sta-i-d too long,” 
and tottered rather than walked from the 
room. 

Don, gazing with a troubled look after his re- 
treating form, noticed that the door seemed to 
open of its own accord, or was already open, though 
Don was certain that it had been closed. But in 
vain he listened for his footsteps on the stairs. 
Stupidly he stood for a moment, realizing that 
the skylight was ablaze with the sun’s rays, then 
rushed to the head of the stairs. No one was in 
sight. On the street no man in a cloak and 
slouch hat was visible. Don slowly returned to 
his studio, puzzled, and thinking of the strange 
conversation and actions of the stranger. He 
thought the man very interesting, but certainly 
not overpolite. Don was not to say superstitious, 
still he believed in more things than most men ; 
but he could hardly accept the idea which the 
stranger had advanced about the ragpicker. He 
thought, Oh ! he is evidently some crank or 
lunatic come here to stuff me full of nonsense. 
But it is a little strange how he caught on to my 
reflections about the fog, for even if he heard the 
conversation with the minister, I don’t remember 


54 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


to have said anything about fog, although I 
thought about it afterwards.” 

Thus thinking, Don seated himself and went 
to work with a will upon the picture. Time fled 
till the shadows of night began to obscure the 
light. Laying aside his paints and brushes he 
moved the screen a little to one side, and there 
by the side of it lay a small package wrapped up 
carelessly in a piece of newspaper. Don, a good 
deal surprised, picked it up, examined it carefully, 
and finding no marks thereon, unrolled it. A 
roll of bank-notes, amounting to the exact sum 
of twenty-five dollars in tens and fives, disclosed 
itself to the astonishment of Don. 

^‘The poor fellow has lost his money,” said 
Don to himself; ‘^I’ll keep it for him.” But 
weeks passed away, still no stranger called for 
the money. At last Don thought it was a gift 
from the fog. He was half inclined to think — 
provided what the stranger said about the rag- 
picker being a product of the fog was true — that 
the money was fog-money also ; he even went so 
far as to expose it to sunlight, but seeing it did 
not vanish, he at last sent it to P. B. Eandolph 
for initiation into the Eosicrucian Club. In re- 
mitting the money Don wrote as follows : 

“Dr. Eandolph. — Esteemed friend, — I take pleasure 
•in complying with the rule, and send herewith twenty- 
five dollars for initiation — or more properly as a part 
payment for instructions in the mysteries of being, of 
which I feel myself most wofully ignorant. In reply 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


55 


to your questions, permit me to say I have no recol- 
lection of any previous existence, and as I am not a 
married man, have never had any experience in taming 
a shrew of a wife. If you will pardon the suggestion, 
I am of the opinion that there are more shrews made 
in married life by husbands than are tamed by them. 
As to taming wild beasts, I know nothing whatever of 
such things, with the exception of the wild-beast nature 
I find within myself. This is an immense menagerie 
that with the help of the Ro8 Crux I am in hopes of 
taming. 

“ Yours very respectfully, 

“ Dox La Velle.” 

In return Eandolph became a regular corre- 
spondent, and, better still, sent him many costly, 
old, and rare books, as well as a magic mirror, 
with instructions for its use. It is not my purpose 
to follow Don on the long road of his initiation. 
Suffice it to say, that from the visit of the stranger 
Don became altogether a different man. His 
mind settled into a calm that no circumstance 
seemed to ruffie. He acquired perfect confidence, 
not only in himself, but in Providence. He looked 
upon himself as an instrument to be carefully 
guarded both physically and mentally ; and he 
fully realized in course of time, that, in that rest 
of spirit — that trust — he was a power among men. 
Business became brisk. Men who never deigned 
to notice him before recognized him with court- 
eous salutations when they met, and strangers 
came to the studio to examine and purchase his 
bits of landscape and heads of celebrities, copied 
from all sources. To him the future existed as 


56 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


if it were not ; he feared nothing, for death and 
life were the same. It will be seen then that Don 
had become quite a philosopher. This was due to 
the hooks he read, supplemented by a systematic 
course of diet and meditation. The latter became 
automatic in time — questioning himself as it were, 
then waiting for some suggestion in answer. 
Sometimes the answer came objectively, as when 
some person dropped in, and in conversation the 
question would he answered satisfactorily ; hut 
more ofteti the answer was subjectively given. 
This was indeed a great pleasure to him. He 
called it ^ ^ a mind-stretching process. ” Thus in his 
progress his mind expanded till he lost in a great 
measure his exclusiveness, and became more and 
more universal ; he found all nature responsive to 
his desires, till it seemed to him as if his thoughts 
reached everywhere. He called them his ‘‘ drum- 
mers.” But it took long years of patient study 
and discipline ere he reached this sublime con- 
dition. Buddhism he studied with activity ; 
the ideas of transmigration and reincarnation 
seemed to furnish the best solution of the problem 
of existence, and he set himself to work diligently 
to practice the rules laid down for the attainment 
of powers promised to the faithful acolyte — the 
attainment of ^ ‘ N irvana. ” Accordingly he looked 
upon sexual passion as the great means of the 
succession of existence, the cause of transmigra- 
tion, of disease and death. So he set himself to 
the task of destroying its potency, of tearing 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


57 


up, root and branch, ail sexual desires in the mind, 
and all physical tendencies in that direction. We 
shall see with what success. Don looked upon love 
from a universal standpoint so far as it was pos- 
sible for him to do so, but since he had never loved 
anything on earth except himself, it will be readily 
seen that love to him was a mere platonic sort of 
friendship. Pity, mingled with a sort of contempt 
for “the blind worms of the dust,” born for an 
hour — to die and be reborn the next, in abject 
blindness and ignorance, thus to revolve through- 
out the vast untold and unknown cycles of time 
— was about all the feeling he had for mankind. 
He imagined that this feeling was akin and lead- 
ing to love. 

It was about this time, when absorbed in his 
studies — mirror-gazing, meditations, etc. — that I 
first met him at Mr. Morrison’s flour store. 


58 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTER IV. 


IN A GRAY. 

In a snug little cottage in the outskirts of the 
city dwelt Mrs. Gray, a widow, and her only 
child Ina, a girl of about eight years of age. 
Mrs. Gray had been in feeble health for some 
time, and, growing worse, called in Dr. Parker 
at the suggestion of almost the only friend she 
had, a certain Mr. McIntosh, a Scotchman, a 
bachelor of middle age. From this time Dr. 
Parker became a constant visitor to Mrs. Gray, 
ostensibly as her medical attendant ; but rumor 
credited him and McIntosh, who were bosom 
friends, both bachelors, as being ‘^a little too 
thick ” with the pretty but delicate widow. But 
as Mrs. Gray attended to her own business and 
was not given to gossip, I doubt if she ever knew 
how she stood with ‘^Mother Grundy.” Suffice 
it to say that she seemed to thrive under the 
doctor’s treatment, and things went smoothly for 
two years, when she became suddenly ill. The 
doctor came at once, but all his skill availed 
nothing. When satisfied that she could not re- 
cover she sent for McIntosh, and there, in the 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


59 


presence of death, confided her little daughter to 
the joint care and guardianship of Dr. Parker 
and Mr. McIntosh. A notary was called in, 
guardianship papers were legally drawn up, and 
her feeble hand tremblingly signed her name. 
Then, in presence of the attorney, she placed the 
little girl between the two, with a hand in a 
hand of each, and made them promise to be a 
father to her. After the funeral, the guardians 
took the child to their boarding-house, an aris- 
tocratic house called The Newcomb.” As soon 
as her grief had somewhat worn off, she was 
duly installed in a private school, and her educa- 
tion looked after with due care. After she had 
been a year at school, however, her teacher 
assured Mr. McIntosh that beauty was all the 
qualification his ward possessed. She could play 
and romp with the best, but learn she could not. 
What she learned one day was gone the next ; 
in fact it seemed that she never could be edu- 
cated. 

McIntosh was worried ; he consulted Dr. 
Parker. McIntosh was really a good fatherly 
man, enjoying a competence, though not wealthy ; 
while the doctor, a much younger man, was 
making a reputation and wealth for himself in 
a lucrative practice with an elder brother. Of 
course he had not the fatherly feeling for the 
girl that McIntosh did ; that could not be ex- 
pected, even if he had possessed the same moral 
principles, which he did not, as the sequel will 


60 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


show. It takes age to ripen and soften human 
hearts. 

The guardians consulted together, examined 
the girl to their own satisfaction, and at last the 
doctor said : 

have an idea, and if we can carry it out, 
we can overcome this difficulty. Ina certainly 
has the make-up of a fine lady if she could only 
get an education. Now the medical journals are 
full of the recent discoveries in hypnotism. In 
France and Germany it has been introduced into 
the hospitals ; the most violent phases of insanity 
are cured by the use of it ; it has been found that 
imbecility and dullness of intellect may be over- 
come in a very short time, dormant faculty 
aroused, and those too active put to sleep and 
rendered inoperative. In this way the most 
vicious habits are cured ; it has been tried upon 
stupid children in the public schools with remark- 
able success. Why not try it on Ina ? I am 
going to Chicago next week ; I understand Pro- 
fessor Ingleman is lecturing there upon the sub- 
ject, and if you agree, I will take her along and 
have her hypnotized. What do you say ? ” 

If you are quite sure that it will not injure 
the girl I certainly can have no objection,” 
replied McIntosh. ‘^We obligated ourselves to 
care for her as if she were our own. You know 
better than I. I leave her entirely in your 
hands.” 

Professor Ingleman pronounced Ina ^^a splen- 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


61 


did subject.” A few trials,” said he, and she 
will be as plastic as putty.” 

They remained in Chicago two weeks, and 
every evening Ina was put into the mesmeric 
sleep, but only for a few minutes at a time. 
Meantime Dr. Parker took lessons in the modus 
opermidi. He was an apt scholar, and before 
the professor left had become an adept in the 
art. The professor’s parting words were : 

‘ ‘ Be careful of your ward ; don’t hypnotize her 
more than twice a week, and waken her every 
time if you don’t want her to love you ; this will 
be often enough to infuse some of your intellectual 
powers into her mind, and you will see a bright 
scholar in a short time. Be careful though and 
don’t go too far. After two or three months dis- 
continue the treatment.” 

Upon his return home the doctor followed out 
the instructions of Prof. Ingleman to the letter, 
with one exception ; he neglected to awaken Ina 
by reverse passes after putting her to sleep, but 
left her to awaken spontaneously, which pro- 
longed the sleep usually several hours. The 
doctor probably intended no harm to his ward by 
this, but desired to test the science and prove his 
powers to their fullest extent. He did not mean 
to displace her will, but to gain her trust and 
perfect confidence. He succeeded admirably in 
this as well as in quickening all the faculties of 
her mind ; moreover, he infused so much of his 
sinrit into the girl that she soon lost her childish 


62 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


ways, became thoughtful and studious and old 
before her time, leading her classes at the school, 
to the astonishment of all who knew her. 

Thus a year passed away and took with it the 
better of her guardians. McIntosh died. The 
doctor’s business occupied much of his time, and, 
feeling that it would be best for his ward, he de- 
cided to place her in a ladies’ seminary. Accord- 
ingly she was taken to Louisville, Ky. The past 
year had been a remarkable year for the doctor as 
well as for his ward. He had practised hypno- 
tism upon her till he was master of the science, 
and had reduced her so completely to his will that 
he could send her to sleep at any time, whether 
present with him or otherwise. While she was 
in the sleep he could command her to do any act 
at some future time, and although she had no 
recollection of it upon awakening she would 
surely do as directed at the appointed time, not 
knowing in the least why she did so, and that, 
too, to all appearances in her normal condition. 

Spirit is the aroma, sublimated essence, vapor, 
so to speak, of matter. The spirit of a rose is its 
aroma ; of alcohol, or ammonia, that subtile sub- 
stance that escapes upon exposure, that intoxi- 
cates and makes a devil or a fool of whoever drinks 
it. We are, to put it roughly, only bottles of 
spirit made animate by its intoxicating qualities ; 
the great laboratory of spirit, where it is generated 
or through which it enters from the Infinite Spirit 
surrounding, is the sexual nature, from which it 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


63 


rises as in ebullition, and escapes through the eyes 
or in speech, gesture, and act. The spirit is indi- 
vidual, i.e., it is as unlike other spirits as one man 
is unlike all others ; it contains in its component 
elements his character, thoughts, feelings, desires, 
motives, etc. It changes with his words, impulses, 
passions, and the like. One may distill a subtile 
poison within by thoughts, desires, etc., which 
exhale from the person, both consciously and un- 
consciously when violently stirred by excitement 
or passion, and which, entering into a receptive 
or weaker spirit, corrupt or taint that other, pro- 
ducing disease, crime, and even death. Alas for 
the world ! too much poison is distilled. 

Dr. Parker was physically a healthy man ; hence 
as a physician he succeeded more by the force of 
a healthy spirit which he had learned how to use 
than by the use of drugs. His mere presence 
was a tonic, his conversation pleasant, his manner 
fascinating, his smile winning, his touch elec- 
trical. He was a materialist, an agnostic, believ- 
ing in nothing but self. Notwithstanding, he 
was popular with church people, especially with 
the ladies. As a politician he had rare abilities, 
and at every Democratic caucus, where log- 
rolling” and ^^wire-pulling” were necessary, 
there was Dr. Parker. 

Notwithstanding all this Dr. Parker was a man 
of little principle where ladies were concerned. 
He was a libertine, a fast man, a rake, but always 
secured the affection of his victim. It was his 


64 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


boast that few women could resist him. Ama- 
tiveness showed in his bull-like neck, his languid 
yet piercing eyes, the projection of his chin, the 
poise of his body, the fat, full palm and taper 
fingers, his deep chest and abdomen, and his soft 
musical voice. 

But let us give due credit to Dr. Parker. He 
was a gentleman, and not a bad man at heart. 
Like most men of his class, he looked upon 
woman as inferior to man, made and placed here 
simply for man’s use and pleasure, as he was 
taught when a boy as regards the animal crea- 
tion, and as held by nearly all Bible readers to- 
day. 


TUJ^: DOUBLE MAN. 


65 


CHAPTER V. 

THE LABORATORY. 

Ina remained at school several years. Shortly 
after her return Dr. Parker called at Don’s studio 
and made arrangements to have Don paint a 
portrait of his ward. Don had never seen her, 
and he little thought, as he bargained to do this 
thing for a stipulated sum of ‘‘ filthy lucre,” what 
a task he had undertaken, nor the influence this 
commonplace transaction would exert upon his 
after life. 

The girl was as beautiful as the imagination 
can well conceive. Auburn hair, with a golden 
light on it, hung in thick clustering ringlets 
upon her shoulders, which were as fair as human 
flesh can well be. She grew tall for her age, 
with well -developed form, graceful, willowy in 
motion, with a neck round, full, and well-propor- 
tioned to her height. She had a forehead high 
and broad, but flat, an oval face overlooked by 
eyes of azure-blue, set wide apart, shaded by long 
lashes, with eyebrows arched high above her 
eyes, conveying the idea of innocent wonder at 
the panorama of life. But her mouth was too 
large to correspond with the beauty of her upper 


66 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


face. It was a voluptuous, sensuous mouth, 
with coral-red lips, and her chin was too small 
for stability and firmness of character. She de- 
veloped a bust that was the envy of all her lady 
friends. Such was Ina when a full-grown woman 
of about seventeen years of age. 

Punctual to the hour agreed upon she appeared 
at the studio. Don had painted many portraits 
for lovely ladies, consequently he was not at all 
timid in their presence. He posed them with as 
much composure as if they were statues ; but 
there was something about this young lady that 
slightly disconcerted him. Here was a presence 
to which he was a stranger. She smiled sweetly 
as she stated the object of her visit, showing her 
teeth white as ivory between rich ruby lips, while 
her eyes sparkled mischievously : 

‘ ■ Dr. Parker was suddenly called out,” said she, 
‘^consequently could not accompany me. He 
assured me, however, that it would make no dif- 
ference to you, and so far as I am concerned, I 
am of the opinion that I shall look just as well as 
if he were looking at me. Allow me to dispense 
with formalities and introduce myself — Miss Ina 
Gray, sir, at your service ! come to have her 
self painted ; ” and she laughed joyously, a laugh 
full, rich, musical as the warbling of a bird, a 
laugh whose tones were never stilled in the con- 
sciousness of poor Don to his dying day. 

Don often said : “ Let me hear a person laugh 

and I can almost tell what stuff he is made of. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


67 


There is a laugh that suggests the innocence and 
guilelessness of an angel ; the birds as they sing 
suggest this kind of laughter. Then again there 
is a laugh that suggests the bellowing of an 
animal or a frog’s music. There is a laugh that 
comes from the soul, and one that has no depth or 
soul in it. Beware of suppressed laughter, and 
shun the person who never laughs.” 

As I said, Don never forgot that laugh, which 
rang out loud, clear, and sonorous from the rich 
lips of Ina. She did not try to smother it with a 
handkerchief either. It filled the studio with 
a melody altogether unknown there. It was a 
spirit that poured itself out then and there, and 
Don caught the refrain and laughed also, as he 
placed her in the posing chair. This mutual 
laughter, so spontaneous, so free and unre- 
strained, broke down all conventional barriers 
between two simple, unsophisticated natures, and 
each felt that they were not strangers but that 
they knew each other and had again met after a 
long separation. It was no easy matter to pose 
this girl to his satisfaction ; and even when posed 
satisfactorily the expression of her countenance 
was so variable that only with great difficulty and 
after many trials and failures Don at last suc- 
ceeded in getting a tolerable ^‘free-and-easy” 
drawing of her. 

“Now,” said Don, “we will adjourn till to- 
morrow. If it is pleasant weather please come 
again at the same hour.” 


68 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


He opened the door and bowed her out, feeling, 
as the door closed, as if something had gone out 
of himself. He sat down and mused long and 
silently, with his eyes fixed upon the drawing. 
Suddenly rousing himself he seized the brush and 
with a free hand laid in ” the picture, then stand- 
ing back looked at it a moment. Dissatisfied 
with his work he rubbed the colors , off and tried 
again. Many times he repeated this operation, 
hut each effort failed to please his eye. At last 
he threw down the brush and drew a curtain 
across the face of the sketch. 

Oh ! if I could only paint her as she is,” he 
sighed, ‘^soul and all ! What a soul speaks out 
of her matchless eyes ! But, oh dear ! I shall 
never he able to make the colors speak as she 
speaks to me.” 

The next day was foggy and the day of the 
stranger’s visit, and several days passed without 
the appearance of Miss Ina. Don placed the 
picture against the wall and resumed work on a 
landscape. Meantime he received the books and 
other things from Dr. Eandolph, and resumed his 
sittings (which had been suspended of late) nightly 
in his cabinet. These sittings sometimes con- 
sumed a good portion of his time, for the simple 
reason that he had at last been able to induce a 
magnetic sleep nearly approaching trance, con- 
sequently was mainly unconscious. The corner 
of the room was partitioned off and styled by 
Don his laboratory. Let us enter it, kind reader, 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


69 


for Don is absent now on a stroll upon the bluffs 
overlooking the ‘'Father of waters,” where he 
loved to wander and meditate in company with 
the birds, which sang so sweetly in the lofty trees 
that grew there, and, at a little later date, in com- 
pany with another sort of bird, as we shall see. 
Well, I have the key, so here we are in Don’s labor- 
atory. I can’t see why he styles it a laboratory, for 
there is nothing in it but a chair whose four posts 
rest in four glass tumblers ; in front sets a low 
footstool with a top of plate-glass. Immediately 
in front of this is a tripod upon which hangs a con- 
cave mirror, with a red curtain hiding its hlack 
face ; behind and a little to one side, hanging from 
the ceiling, is a small ruby lantern. On a shelf 
his books are arranged. The room is painted a 
dull yellow color, floor, ceiling, and walls. But 
here comes Don. Let us listen to his explanation 
of these things, for we are favored visitors and he 
is willing to gratify our curiosity. 

“ It is necessary,” said Don, “ in the outset, to 
understand certain principles in all occult science. 
The object being to produce magnetic sleep 
without an operator, it is necessary to limit the 
radiation of spirit from the body as much as pos- 
sible. With an operator, the spirit of the hyp- 
notizer mingles with the spirit of the subject, thus 
producing a more rapid combustion or ferment- 
ation, intoxication or exaltation, leaving a de- 
bilitating effect afterwards, and, like all drunken- 
ness, opening the way to obsession when produced 


70 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


too often. Unfortunately in our present igno- 
rance of the science and the susceptibility of sub- 
jects we do not know how far it is safe to carry 
experiments. On the contrary, in self-induced 
magnetic sleep there is no mingling of spirits of a 
mundane class. If there is any of a higher class, it 
makes the spirit brighter and purer than it is of 
itself ; hence it is the road to health and power. 

Now in sleep we get all the life and power we 
call our own. This must be self-evident to you. 
We waste life in our waking hours, but drink it 
in and store it up in sleep. Young infants sleep 
three-fourths of the time ; see how they grow ! 
The sick get well readily if they can sleep. 

“We know little or nothing of sleep. Some think 
that a dreamless, unconscious sleep is the only 
natural one. This may be so with some people, 
and they are the ones who scoff at dreams. I 
learned when quite young the value of dreams. 

“I remember once, it was during the first school 
I taught, I had many scholars, and was kept very 
busy during school-hours, so much so that I could 
give little time to working out mathematical 
problems, and was in the habit of taking the ex- 
amples home and working them out there for 
advanced scholars, for I had several who were 
trying their best to get ahead of me. I had no 
key to the arithmetic, and not being the best 
scholar in the world I felt anxious to keep in 
advance of the class, among whom was a young 
lady who had taught several terms, and was 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


71 


attending my school for the purpose of perfecting 
herelf in mathematics, wherein she was deficient. 
One day she brought me an example in percent- 
age which she could not do, and which, although it 
looked simple enough, I failed to solve. On taking 
it home at night and working on it very many 
times, always getting a wrong result, bedtime 
came and found me totally at a loss what to do. 
It would not do to admit that I could not solve it ; 
there was no one to whom I could apply for help ; 
I dared not pronounce the book wrong. I retired 
totally defeated. I am of such a nature that no 
trouble, grief, or anxiety prevents me from sleep- 
ing, and in this instance I fell asleep with that 
unsolved problem heavy on my mind. I dreamed 
of it. I saw the slate with the whole work on it, 
my mistake plainly visible. I was so glad that I 
immediately awoke. The slate with the work upon 
it still remained in my vision. Wondering at it I 
slept again till morning, then worked the problem 
out as I saw it in my dream, and it was correct. 

From this and many other experiences, I have 
learned that there are several kinds or degrees of 
sleep, and that in the right kind of sleep the mind 
is clearer and more acute than when awake. 
There is a condition between sleeping and waking 
which I term magnetic, wherein there are sights, 
sounds, and sensations that we mortals who do 
not stop there to explore know nothing of ; it is 
there that any and all mysteries may be solved. 
But we pass through so quickly, the sensations 


72 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


are so pleasant, that we recollect nothing of it in 
that deeper sleep so resembling death. It is then 
we are young again ; we feel again a mother’s 
warm kiss ; the breath of angels fans our cheeks, 
and we hear the soft rustling of their wings as 
the}^ hush us to repose. It is in this state that 
the dying catch a glimpse of heaven and of the 
faces of the dear ones gone before. I pity the dull 
materialistic nature that has not learned to pause 
here upon the threshold of God’s infinite temple, 
and ask for the bread that comes down from His 
bounteous table. Questions asked here meet with 
a ready response, but he who questions must pre- 
pare himself to receive the answer, or it will 
escape him, as a troubled dream escapes without 
meaning, without taking hold of the soul. In 
order to prepare myself I have arranged these 
things as you see — not that such things are ab- 
solutely essential ; they merely assist. The theory 
is simple enougli to one of comprehension. The 
spirit of earth — for the world is a living thing — is 
crushed, broken up, and forced back into the earth 
upon that portion of it that is illuminated by the 
sun’s rays, and at the same time it pours out with 
greater force upon the other side, where the sun’s 
rays have ceased for the time to impinge. As 
evidence of this truth, fires burn with greater in- 
tensity, their flames flash higher at night than in 
daytime, for they are forced out by the outrush 
of the earth’s spirit, as well as fed by it ; for all 
spirit is fire. 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


73 


Hence spirit, being fire, burns brighter and 
freer at night than in daytime ; but it being nat- 
ural to sleep when darkness broods like a spirit 
over the earth, the mind, being bound to phys- 
ical conditions, goes to sleep mainly as the body 
does, hence in that lethargic state is not aware of 
the luminous garments the soul puts on when the 
body sleeps. Mind is the great reservoir of light, 
the fountain of truth ; but spirit, before being 
united to light or truth; is black. When these 
two are united an individual being, an organiza- 
tion, is the result. For, indeed, light falling upon 
a black surface is refracted, broken up, and the 
colors of matter appear. 

There is no pure and unadulterated truth on 
this earth. Evil, ignorance, and error are black, 
but truth being clear light, they mingle in an 
organized form, and we have truth of all shades of 
color ; each individual sees it in the light he has. 
To purify light, then, is our highest work ; to this 
end I sit in this isolated chair, to insulate the body 
from the coarser elements of the earth spirit ; but 
this is a small thing compared to the insulation of 
the spirit, which is a mental process. I see you 
are weary ; I will not now speak further upon 
this subject.” 

Thus dismissed, gentle reader, we take our 
leave ; but the next time we find Don in a 
talkative mood we will question him about that 
magic mirror and its uses, etc. 


74 


THE -DOUBLE ^^TAN. 


CHAPTER VI. 

INA AND DON. 

After quite a lapse of time Ina reappeared at 
the studio, as she said with a laugh, ‘ ‘ to resume 
being painted.” Don felt that this was not 
very complimentary to his genius, and as it cor- 
responded somewhat with his own doubt of his 
power, it added not a little to his weakness. But 
this feeling soon wore off in her presence, and they 
were as free in their intercourse as if they were 
old acquaintances. But talk and laugh as they 
would and did, Don made little progress with the 
painting. He had worked on it till everything — 
drapery, hair, ornaments, etc. — was as perfect as 
he could wish ; hut her eyes bothered him. It 
might be that Ina, knowing her power to change 
her expression, practiced her little coquetries upon 
him by purposely throwing a look into her face 
that was foreign to the one Don was trying with 
his whole soul to portray in the lifeless thing before 
him. Be that as it may, it was a fact that every 
effort (and they were many) failed, to the great 
amusement of Ina, who would laugh till tears 
came in her eyes, insisting, 

‘‘Oh, that is lovely, Don! don’t rub it out! 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


75 


I declare to goodness I can never get as good an 
expression again.” Then she would pout, and 
put on her hat, declaring never will sit any 
more ! ” and leave without saying good-hye till 
she was halfway down the stairs, then calling 
out, Oh, Don ! did you say I am to come again 
to-morrow? Yes? well, good-bye till then!” 
And away she would trip singing as light-hearted 
as a bird. Such things could not go on forever 
without producing results. 

Don was a man who had no idea of marriage ; 
in fact, though full of passion, he had long since 
resolved to live a celibate — “to make a eunuch 
of himself for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.” 
Not that he intended to mutilate his person; that 
(as he understood Buddhism) was not necessary ; 
on the contrary, he often said : “ He who seeks 
Nirvana must be a whole man, with all his facul- 
ties in perfect natural order, but he must over- 
come all his passions, natural desires, and in- 
stincts of the flesh by force of will.” 

This man who had never loved knew nothing 
of love save (what most men think) that it is a 
mere animal instinct such as the brute has, but 
which, suppressed and overcome by force of will, 
and the thoughts centered upon heavenly or 
spiritual things, becomes celestial in its nature. 
As if thought has anything to do with love 1 He 
had yet to learn that love is a gift of God, and 
that the only way it could enter his soul was 
through a woman. Gradually and unconsciously 


76 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Ina’s spirit infused itself into his, as the aroma 
of a flower impregnates a room. Ina had no 
thought of this. Innocent and pure, fresh from 
her Maker’s hand, charged to overflowing with 
the aroma of heaven, she could not help filling 
his studio and himself with that which she could 
not suppress any more than a flower can suppress 
its perfume. Moreover, Don’s meditations, 
desires, and thoughts, together with the sittings 
in his cabinet, had prepared the way for this, for 
it had made him in a great measure vacant of 
animal desires and receptive of the woman spirit ; 
for, indeed, thought has much to do with earthly 
loves, passions, and desires. Thought inflames 
the blood, and cools it as well ; but Don felt no 
heat of passion, for there was none in the pure 
woman spirit of Ina, and his own had been 
cooled. 

The first intimation he had of an influence for- 
eign to himself was during one of his trials to 
paint her portrait. It became necessary for him 
to arrange her hair, which became slightly out of 
place during one of her mischievous spells of 
mirth, and as he touched a lock of her hair he felt 
a thrill, strangely pleasant, pass up his arm. He 
sat down and essayed to resume his work, but 
somehow the hand refused to do its duty. Per- 
plexed, annoyed, Don threw down the brush, say- 
ing, 

‘Hna, I am strangely nervous this morning; 
suppose we go for a walk on the bluff. I can show 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


77 


you one of the loveliest nooks down by a creek 
you ever set eyes on.” 

‘‘All right,” said Ina, “I am ‘yours very 
truly ; ’ ” and she went skipping and singing out of 
the room. 

Once arrived on the bluff Don suggested that 
Ina must be tired, and proposed for her to rest 
awhile, saying, 

“It is quite a long way yet to the little nook I 
want to show you ; sit here and rest.” 

“Indeed, I am not at all wearied,” said she. 
“I love to walk ; I feel as if I could fly ! ” 

So they walked on into the shadows of 
great trees whose branches interlocked over their 
heads ; and somehow, I hardly know how it hap- 
pened, for Don never fully explained it to me, 
their hands got clasped together as they walked 
side by side. Silently thus they tripped along, 
oblivious to the warbling of little birds that 
hopped from branch to branch ; unmindful that 
the trees bowed their heads and waved their 
limbs as in benediction, and the winds whispered 
a blessing, as the blue sky peeped, many-eyed, 
laughingly through openings among the leaves. 
They heard not the voices that make silence com- 
panionable, that whisper — nay, shout and hur- 
rah — in waving grass, falling leaves, and sway- 
ing tree- tops ; but they felt magic fingers discours- 
ing sweet music upon their heart-strings ; for are 
not our hearts so many harps, more or less in tune 
or out of it ? Whose are the fingers that sweep 


78 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


across those strings one or more times in our 
brief life, calling out such sweet delicious melo- 
dies never to be forgotten — no, never ! 

Whence comes this spirit stirring up things in 
us that we knew not of before ? It sets us on fire 
as if a torch were being applied to things com- 
bustible. It changes us from one state of being 
to another, as if it were a birth ; the atoms of 
the body dance with a new joy, a new life. We 
are dumb in its presence ; the tongue, that un- 
ruly member, has lost its cunning. Even thought 
is held in abeyance, and this cold calculating 
intellect sees nothing, knoivs nothing, save this 
tremulous upheaving, as an earthquake shakes 
the earth. Whence cometh this spirit, transform- 
ing, regenerating ? “The wind bloweth where it 
listeth, and ye hear the sound thereof, but whence 
it cometh and whither it goeth ye cannot tell. 
So it is with every one that is born of the spirit ” 
—Love ! 

Don heard nothing with his natural ears, but 
he felt the surging of a mighty ocean whose 
waves were engulfing him, a roaring and rush- 
ing within as if a tornado were sweeping 
away all that he had ever constructed on earth 
in which to dwell in safety as in a castle. His 
theories of celibacy were as the leaves of a forest 
blown by a fierce wind ; his will, so all-potent, 
was l)roken as a column struck by lightning ; the 
clothing of Buddhism, philosophy, egotism, indi- 
viduality, etc., in which he had taken so much 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


79 


pride, stripped from him in one brief moment, leav- 
ing him naked as Adam in the garden. He had not 
knowledge enough to realize, as yet, that he was 
naked. He had no excuses to make ; he needed 
no ‘‘fig-leaves” to cover his nakedness with yet, 
for the light had not come ; it was still com- 
ing, and he walked by the side of Ina as if he 
walked in the air. He held her little hand in his, 
but he had long since ceased to feel that he had 
a hand ; like one in a dream, time, distance, and 
objects were swallowed up in the burning vortex 
of his soul, through which the forked lightnings 
flashed and played. He seemed a wreck to him- 
self as he seated Ina on an old log that lay rotting 
upon the bank of a rivulet which ran laughing 
by. In his imagination, his mind, which he had 
looked upon as some stupendous edifice, semi- 
crowned, reaching to the stars, lay torn to shreds, 
in a cloud wreck around which the fires blazed and 
sputtered, as if it was something incombustible ; 
sparks issued from it, fitful flames leaped out, 
flickered, went back, came again, with blue and 
red tongues, licking at the thing that resisted the 
spirit. “ Our God is a consuming Are.” “God 
is Love.” 

Don was filled with love, hut he did not know 
it. How many of us are conscious that God 
dwells within us ? Conscious love is one thing, 
unconscious love is quite another. Don had prac- 
ticed self-magnetization so much that he was fa- 
miliar with the sensations, as one becomes familiar 


80 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


with an oft- traveled road. The sensations he 
experienced now were similar hut altogether dif- 
ferent. It is difficult to describe the difference, 
except to say that one is coarse, the other fine, as 
electricity is coarse coming from a battery, fine 
when coming from a magnet ; coarse when it 
extends only to the muscular and nervous system, 
fine when it penetrates to the inner man, intoxi- 
cating or making him drunk, and at last render- 
ing him unconscious. Sensations may be said to 
be coarse when forced, lacking harmony ; fine 
when by the very nature of things they spring 
forward to meet the exciting cause ; then cause 
and effect become one. 

As Don sat there by the side of Ina it seemed 
to him as if he was being inflated ; something 
continuing to pass from her to himself. This 
something seemed to him to have life; it warmed, 
thrilled, exhilarated him. It moved in him, 
surging back and forth from one extremity to 
the other — a constant, conscious circulation, 
producing an ecstasy, buoyant, airy, as if he was 
evaporating, becoming vapor that floats. Now, 
how was it with Ina ? Let us listen to their con- 
versation, for Don, by a supreme effort of will, has 
roused himself enough to speak. 

Ina,” said he, this is the happiest hour I have 
ever known ! If it could last always I should be 
willing to die now. Oh, Ina ! Ina ! I love you ! 
My soul has gone to you ! I give myself away to 
you ! I want no more of myself, I have talked 


rilK DOUBLE MAN. 


81 


and laughed of love to my shame, as if it was a 
something to be mastered, put under foot ; but 
now I see it is God — the creative genius of the 
world. I am nothing without love, and love can- 
not come to me except I come to thee. Take me, 
Ina ! I ask nothing. I want no ownership in 
thee — I want no wife. It is a desecration of the 
sacred name of love.” 

Ina sat as if spellbound, with wide-open, staring 
eyes, parted lips, tremulous with emotion, while 
Don poured out his passionate plea with hands 
stretched towards her — for Ina had moved a little 
from him when he began speaking, and faced him 
with her eyes fixed upon his. She felt that Don’s 
soul was speaking to hers ; that there was no 
premeditation, no thought, hut a soul gushing 
from him to her. At last she found speech, and 
with the words her hands sought his, and she fell 
forward into his arms, saying, 

^^Oh, Don ! your words are but an echo of my 
own feelings for you. To dwell in thee and thou 
in me is the fulfillment of all my desires. Heaven 
can have no greater bliss than this ; ” and their 
lips met with one long, lingering kiss. Then 
looking thoughtfully in Ina’s face as he held her 
a little from him, he said : 

^Hndeed, this we feel must ^be the ecstasy of 
God in every unfallen soul in which He dwells. 
Oh ! creative power, the heavens cannot contain 
thee ! Earth and hell are full of thee. Souls 
black with crime are animated by thee ! The 
6 


82 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


blessings of love are heaven ; the curses of love 
are the hells. ” 

‘^But I cannot see,” said Ina, how love can 
curse, or be a curse ; surely not such love as I 
feel ! ” 

^‘Metaphysical questions,” said Don. “Let us 
not discuss the subject now ; suffice it to say that 
all diseases are the curses of love in some form or 
other, mainly self-love or of gold — idols we make. ” 

“ Ah, Don, are you making an idol of me ? ” 

“ No, no ! ” cried Don, I give myself to you ; if 
you make an idol of me a curse will surely follow. 
Mind, I don’t want you — I give myself to you.” 

“Oh, 1 understand, Don ; but I give myself to 
you. What will you do with the gift ? — make 
an idol of it ? ” 

“No, indeed, Ina ; a gift of the soul cannot be 
recalled. I have given myself away, hence I am 
no longer self. The same is true of you, so self 
is left outside while our souls coalesce, and ive 
two are one wherein self has no part. There can 
be no worship here, because there is no higher 
love, no other God, but this. How can I be selfish 
when you have taken the place of self ? Tell me, 
Ina, has self any part in your love for me ? ” 

“Nay, Don, I do not love; it loves itself; I 
mean that I have no desire, no volition, no will 
whatever ; the fire burns and I am warm. I look 
in your eyes and gaze into immensity. There 
are unfathomable depths there, without limit or 
bounds. Self makes boundaries or obstacles, , but 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


88 


I am searching your soul in vain for any, for you 
have left your soul, as one leaves his dwelling, 
leaving no commands, no limits to your welcome 
of me.^’ 

Ina suddenly paused, drew a deep breath, then 
whispered : 

‘‘ Come, Don ! There are beautiful meadows 
all covered with flowers ; there are brooks, moun- 
tains, and dales, studded with gardens, with vines 
and trees laden with fruit. Come, Don ! I can- 
not go alone — never more shall I be alone ! Come, 
Don ! it is not far — Ah ! I see some one, bright 
and shining as an angel, beckoning us to come.” 

‘^Wait !” said Don, who was fast losing his 
self-control under the girl’s influence, wait, Ina, 
I cannot come just yet.” 

But the spell was broken ; the sound of his 
voice roused him from the trance into which he 
was fast sinking ; the landscapes and beauties 
she had tried to picture, and which he had begun 
to see dimly, disappeared as if by magic, and 
left him to realize the fact that Ina lay upon his 
bosom like a lifeless corpse. Cold, rigid, pallid 
as the dead, with eyes wide open, with a meaning- 
less stare flxed upon space, lay the beautiful 
maiden he so fondly loved. But Don knew that 
this was only a trance into which he had partially 
been several times when essaying self-magnet- 
ization, and in which he was well versed theo- 
retically. Moreover, he knew by the pulsating 
thrills surging through his form that he was 


84 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


near the same condition himself ; so, although 
a little startled at first, his good sense reassured 
him in a few moments, when he took measures to 
restore her animation. Her first exclamation was : 

Oh, Don, why did you call me back so soon ?” 

Why, Ina, I did not call you. I never spoke 
a word.” 

Oh, I know that, but your thoughts were like 
thunderbolts. They broke up a sweet conversation 
I was having with that angelic person I spoke of. 
But let us go, Don ; the sun is getting low, and I 
will tell you what he said as we walk homew^ard. 
Oh, I am so happy ! This is the happiest day in 
my life. It is impossible for you to conceive any- 
thing half so beautiful as I saw, Don. I have 
been magnetized many times by the doctor, but 
never could see or do anything except he willed 
it. But the angel said that henceforth I should 
be independent. He said that your soul having 
united with mine, the vistas of infinitude are open 
to us, but that it is necessary for me to take the 
lead. The next trial we make you will be able to 
go with me, Don. And oh ! such grandeur ! The 
angel said that the kingdom of love is unbarred to 
us. We have passed by the sacred hidls termed 
cherubim in the Scriptures and the flaming swords 
that turn every way to guard the path to the 
tree of life ; for he said we had no nnsatisfied 
desires of the flesh, no culmination of bliss to 
anticipate in the future ; content with the eternal 
now, we are full of God.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


85 


CHAPTER VII. 

DIABOLISM. 

Shortly affcer Ina’s return from school, Dr. 
Parker, out of curiosity to test his hypnotic power 
over her, with her consent, succeeded in putting 
her into the deepest sleep he had ever known. 
In fact it was so deathlike and so prolonged that 
the doctor, notwithstanding his sang-froid and 
self-poise, was not a little disturbed. He failed to 
take into consideration that she had changed from 
a girl of shallow and superficial nature to a full- 
grown woman, merely pausing now for full de- 
velopment. He did not realize that the practice 
of hypnotism stirs up passions, both in the operator 
and in the subject, that are, to say the least, dan- 
gerous to the young ; full of moral poison, of pollu- 
tion, and of destruction of all will-power in the 
subject. Or if the doctor knew all this, it did not 
deter him from pursuing his unhallowed experi- 
ments from time to time, till he had such complete 
mastery over her that she could read his thoughts 
whenever desired to do so, and would obey any 
command he gave her while in the sleep, no matter 
at what time it was to be executed or the nature of 
it. I think if he had commanded her to commit a 


86 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


murder she would have done so, all unconscious 
of committing a crime, for when the time came 
for her to obey she seemed perfectly in her normal 
state. For some inscrutable reason he would 
command her when asleep not to remember any- 
thing that occurred while in that state. Hence 
when awake her magnetic sleeps were mental 
blanks to her. Possibly the doctor intended to 
develop clairvoyance in her, so that she might 
assist him in his practice, diagnosing disease and 
prescribing remedies. Be that as it may, I am 
willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but 
I cannot think for a moment that he ever in- 
tended to marry her. A little prior to her ac- 
quaintance with La Velle, while she was in a 
hypnotic sleep the doctor said : 

‘ ‘ Ina, I want you to write a letter to me ; will 
you do so ? ” 

“ Certainly, dear Guardy ; why should I not ? ” 

“Well, next Sunday noon, as soon as you re- 
turn from church, close your room, let no one 
see you, then write as I think noiv. Are you 
ready ? ” 

“Yes, sir ; hut please think slowly.” 

Ina sat with eyes rolled back till nothing 
showed but the whites of them, her face raised 
as if looking at the ceiling, while the doctor, in 
front of her, gesticulated with his forefinger to 
emphasize each thought. 

“Have you got it, Ina?” he asked, his satur- 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


87 


nine countenance contrasting horribly with the 
gentle expression of hers. 

“Yes,” she sighed rather than spoke. 

“ Then see that you forget all this when you 
awake. Sleep one hour longer. Good-night.” 

Upon her return from church the following 
Sunday, Ina had scarce laid aside her hat ere she 
seemed puzzled, as if she had lost something, 
stood looking around in a dazed sort of way, 
then, as if a sudden thought had struck her, 
went to the table upon which lay hooks and 
writing material, rapidly wrote a letter, which 
she enclosed in an envelope, directed it to Dr. 
Parker, and dropped it into the letter-box in the 
door of his room. Keturning to her own room, 
she took up a book and began to read, all uncon- 
scious that she had, but a moment before, blighted 
her own bright life as well as that of others 
connected by the chain of fate that links many 
together. 

The doctor came in after a while, and noticing 
the pen, ink, and paper, said : 

“Ina, have you been writing a love-letter?” 
pointing to the writing material. 

Ina looked up with a smile, saying : 

“Now, Guardy ! don’t be silly; you know I 
have no lovers. I think I intended to write to 
one of my schoolmates, hut when I got ready I 
forgot all about it and began to read.” 

The doctor said no more, but went to his room, 
where he found her letter written verbatim as 


88 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


he had in thought dictated it several days before. 
He placed the letter in his safe, while a fiendish 
smile illuminated his swarthy features. He 
thought to himself, ‘ ‘ What a beautiful, voluptu- 
ous creature she is ! I don’t want to marry, and 
I won’t marry any one ; hut women are such fools 
that they think there is no marriage except a 
priest or magistrate mutters a certain formula 
over the pair. I can possess her, however, if 
I will, hut I would rather possess her fairly. 
Pshaw ! what is courtship but hypnotism ? I’ll 
sound her on marriage first, though, and see how 
she stands affected towards me.” 

With this idea in his mind he embraced the 
first opportunity he had to say to her : 

‘ ‘ Ina, you are nearly eighteen now, are you 
not ?” 

‘Wes, Guardy,” she said, looking curiously in 
his face ; “why do you ask? You know more 
about it than I do.” 

“ Certainly, my dear, but I was thinking that 
girls of your age and development usually begin 
to think about marriage about that time, and I 
— don’t feel embarrassed, Ina — as your guardian, 
I feel as if we ought to be perfectly frank with 
each ” 

“ Oh, Guardy, I would tell you anything and 
everything if there was anything to tell, but I 
am so content and happy here that the thought 
of changing has never once entered my mind. 
Besides, I don’t know a single soul that wants 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


89 


me — do you ? ” she asked with a startled look. 
“ Have you in your goodness of heart been can- 
vassing for me ? If so, and I am becoming a 
burden on your hands, please. Doctor, be candid 
and say so. With the splendid education I have 
I can easily make ” 

Stop, Ina dear ; you can never be a burden 
to me. I must admit, though, that I fear to lose 
you. I am terribly jealous of that painter of 
late, who ” 

Ha ! ha ! ” laughed Ina. Why, he is nearly 
as old as you ; besides, he doesn’t believe in mar- 
riage at all.” 

‘‘ Then you confess, you sly rogue, that you 
have conversed together upon the subject.” 

Ina’s cheek began to burn with shame and 
humiliation at the intimation of slyness, as she 
looked boldly in his face with sparkling eyes, 
and answered with a little warmth : 

I hope I am free, and, if so, excusable for con- 
versing with any gentleman of Mr. La Yelle’s 
delicacy, refinement, and intellectual powers, upon 
any subject, no matter how delicate. Besides, I 
was not aware that the subject of marriage is 
so very delicate after all. Look at the papers ! ” 
she exclaimed, with growing animation. They 
speak of marriage as they do of other business, 
and the divorce trials are furnishing a nice morsel 
of fun and scandal. Are young women to be de- 
barred the privilege of posting themselves upon 


90 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


this momentous question through fear of ridi- 
cule ? ” 

“ Oh, Ina, you take me up too quickly. You 
don’t understand me. Of course I don’t object to 
your conversing with anyone you like upon that 
or any other topic, only it struck me as a little 
odd that you and I had never conversed upon the 
subject, when I should have been the very one to 
enlighten you thereon.” 

‘^It certainly is your own fault. Doctor, but I 
suppose you are too busy with the practice of 
your profession to think of the silly questions upon 
which a girl of eighteen naturally desires knowl- 
edge. As to Mr. La Velle, while he is painting, 
his hand works while his mind dreams of impos- 
sible things. He says that if there is a true prin- 
ciple in the union of two, that union is of the 
soul, and is consummated in heaven, and cannot 
be consummated on earth ; whereas wedlock as 
practiced on earth is a counterfeit thereof, in- 
vented by the Devil to get rid of the surplus 
population of his fiery dominions, for nearly all 
the children born of them are souls fresh from 
hell-. What do you think of that ? Cranky, 
isn’t he ? ” 

‘‘Well, I should say so,” said the doctor, 
moodily ; “ but I never thought of it in that light, 
for I neither believe in souls, heaven, nor in hell 
— nor in marriage, for that matter, except as a 
convenience. But I’ll tell you what I am think- 
ing, Ina. If I should ever marry any woman, 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


91 


that woman will be you. I can’t bear the thought 
of losing you.” He paused, looked at his watch, 
and did not notice the astonishment of Ina. She 
was literally speechless with amazement. The 
doctor arose, saying : 

‘ ‘ Let us not speak of it any more to-day ; think 
of it, my dear girl. I hardly need enumerate the 
advantages of such a union. You have known 
me all your life. I am still a young man, and can 
give you an assured position in society. Think of 
it ! I must ” 

Wait a moment,” said she, taking a step to 
detain him. ^Wou must not go with any such 
idea as that in your dear head. I love you as a 
father, and you can never he anything else to me.” 

Ina, is your heart still free ? ” 

‘‘Most assuredly,” she answered, “hut that 
makes no difference ; I cannot think of you in any 
other relation than as a father. Pray let us end 
the matter.” 

“Why, my dear, you are too hasty ; what do 
you know of love ? In nearly all my experience 
among married women the truth has been for- 
cibly brought home to me that love comes after 
marriage ; it is a mere sexual relation.” And 
then he was gone, leaving the girl almost petri- 
fied. For a moment only ; then falling into a 
chair she wept as she had never wept before. 

After the violence of her weeping had somewhat 
abated she knelt by the sofa and prayed: 
“ Father, forgive him, he knows not what he does ! 


92 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Oh, mother ! if thou canst hear, come to me 
quickly ! Oh, save me from a fate worse than 
death ! Oh, why should my heart be so torn with 
anguish ? Am I to suffer for sins committed 
before I was born ? ” Then she thought of Don 
and what he had said about children coming from 
the pit, and with the thought of him came the 
first impulse toward him, a tranquilizing, calm- 
ing, drawing, trustful influence, not to say an 
attraction, but a consciousness of a haven of 
wisdom there. Oh, if she only might avail her- 
self of it ! 

Oh, Wisdom ! thou boldest in thy strong arms 
the tender hearts of all women. Woman, the 
mother, is an embodiment of love ; but man, with 
his strength and projective nature, charmed by 
mysteries and their solution, the vir that he 
carries in his blood fired by beauty of form and 
grace of motion, left to his own devices, without 
the cooling and subduing influences of woman’s 
love, is lost in brutal passion, and becomes her 
ravisher instead of her guide. 

The doctor went his way, humming a little 
tune as he twirled his cane, thinking ; and I 
imagine his thoughts were somewhat in this 
fashion ; What fools women are ! with them love 
is everything. A mere fancy ! the allurement of 
the imagination, it outweighs in the balance 
wealth, position, honor and a good name. How 
many have I known who for a kiss and ^ Oh, I 
love you ! ’ have sacrificed virtue, a fair name. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


93 


and become outcasts in society, just simply be- 
cause they were fools enough to believe I told the 
truth when I said I love yo u ! Bah ! I don’t believe 
in love at all. It is merely the burning of sexual 
fire. Strong men admire women because they 
are weak, for in the nature of things opposites 
attract each other ; but her very weakness — sexual 
— is the lodestone that outweighs her beauty ; for 
beauty is a sign weakness hangs out of the shop- 
window. Men do not admire strong-minded 
women. When heauty fades in a woman, and 
experience gives her wisdom to control herself, 
and power, through the cooling of passions, to 
resist the demands of her husband, I should like 
to know what kind of love remains. I believe it is 
all in the way one thinks. Association produces 
all we know of love ; it is a selfish passion, like 
the rest of man’s make-up.” 

The doctor was shrewd ; he perceived that he had 
made a bad impression upon his ward, and for sev- 
eral days he avoided an interview ; then when they 
met he set himself to work to undo what he had 
done. With consummate skill he satisfied her that 
he was not serious in the declarations he had made ; 
that he was only sounding her depth of character 
and strength of mind ; that he was pleased that his 
ward had imbibed such sterling principles, and 
had the strength of mind to carry them out in her 
everyday life — had a way and a will of her own, 
based in a study of her own tastes and impressions. 
Such candid admissions as these, though border- 


94 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


ing close upon flattery — and where is the woman 
averse to compliments ? — served to reassure Ina 
and re-establish the doctor in the same standing 
as formerly. 

Time went on, till at last he suggested to 
her that he desired her to become a clairvoyant 
so as to assist him in his constantly growing 
practice. To this she was not averse, and they 
commenced regular sittings to practice pyscho- 
metry on herbs, roots, drugs, letters, pictures, per- 
sons, or, in fact, any and all things available, 
whenever the doctor had the leisure. Meantime 
the visits to La Velle’s studio had not been very 
regular. Still they were occasionally continued, 
but on her part without much interest in the 
painting ; rather more, I judge, for the recreation 
and the pleasure she took in their rambles and 
his quaint conversation. 

Upon the doctor’s return from a trip to see a 
patient in the country one day, he saw at a dis- 
tance Ina and Don walking together in a beauti- 
ful grove of wide-spreading oaks that grew on the 
bluff overlooking the city and river. They did 
not see him, for they were absorbed in conver- 
sation. He slackened the speed of his horse. His 
face grew black. ‘^That is the way the wind 
lies,” he muttered, as he watched them. Then it 
was that the devil entered his soul. 

Suggestions are unfathomable. We owe all 
that we are, or have, to suggestions. Whence 
do they come ? In the hypnotic sleep the doctor 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


95 


could suggest to Ina an act or line of conduct, 
and although in her normal state she had no 
knowledge of such suggestion, yet she obediently 
carried it out to the least particular. Further- 
more, such suggestion might be made orally, or 
in a whisper, or even in thought, if such thought 
was intensified and emphasized by his strong will. 
Of course no one could claim that Ina should be 
held responsible for acts committed while under 
this infiuence, but where shall we draw the line 
between the normal and the hypnotic state ? A 
suggestion made to her when in the latter state, 
to be carried into execution at some future time, 
say in one week, one month, one year, or even ten 
years, is as sure of execution at the appointed 
time as she is to live, and at the time of such 
execution she is to all appearance as much in her 
normal state as ever she was, and as natural as 
anyone who has never been hypnotized. 

Who can draw the line between insanity and 
sanity ? A suggestion is a potent factor in our 
existence, and what makes the question more 
complicated is the fact that suggestions do not 
depend wholly upon some person or persons to 
make them. They come spontaneously, whether 
we desire them or not. The babbling of a brook, the 
warbling of birds, the fragrant fiowers, the bright 
sunshine or the angry clouds, the deep, silent 
forest or the boundless prairie, the lofty mountain 
or the darksome abyss — all these and countless 
more, impossible to conceive or to enumerate, are 


96 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


full of suggestions to the sensitive soul, suggest- 
ing different things to different minds. Further- 
more, these suggestions are in harmony with the 
bent of the mind receiving them. For instance, 
different persons viewing the ocean, or a confla- 
gration, or any other scene are differently affected. 
In one poetic feelings are stirred, in another the 
sublime, in another fear, with its multitudes of 
horrible objects and possibilities. Moses, from 
the burning bush, received a suggestion to liberate 
his people from Egyptian bondage, but no one 
knows how his heart had yearned, all the forty 
years of his servitude, to do this same thing. I 
say suggestions coming from the unknown are 
always in harmony with our inmost desires or 
prayers. Moses suggests to Pharaoh that he 
should let Israel go. But the suggestions of the 
Lord to him are of another kind — donH do it. “ I 
will harden Pharaoh’s heart,” certainly means a 
suggestion for him not to comply with Moses’s 
request. And yet Pharaoh was punished for 
obeying the suggestions springing from his 
‘Miardened heart.” Who is responsible? Judas 
at the ‘Mast supper” received a suggestion and 
forthwith carried it out by betraying the sweefc- 
natured, glorious Friend of mankind — the Saviour. 
Wherever the story is known Judas is execrated 
as a horrible wretch, and the memory of him is 
an unhealing ulcer in the heart ; no statues nor 
paintings adorn the churches commemorative of 
him as well as Jesus ; while churches are all 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


97 


dedicated to the memory and worship of Him 
betrayed; His living monument, unmade by hands, 
grows up in every true heart. No one thanks 
God for Judas, and yet he was as necessary 
to the plan of salvation as the One crucified. In 
order to be saved one must be a sinner, yet no 
one thanks God for sin. Without a devil there 
could be no Church and no salvation. Without 
hell there could be nothing to be saved from, and 
no heaven to go to. Isaiah, in giving voice to 
God, says : make the light, and I make the 

darkness ; I create good, and I create evil ; I, the 
Lord, do all these things.^’’ And in plenty of 
places in the Old Testament God is made to say, 
For this same purpose have I raised thee up.” 
And Joseph, trying to comfort his brethren, who 
had sold him when a boy into slavery, whose crime 
had now come home to them in all its horror, 
said : ‘‘Ye meant it for evil, but God meant it 
for good.” How do we know but what evil in 
God’s sight is the same as good ? It is vain to 
say that the suggestions to do wrong spring from 
hardness of heart. Why are some hearts hard and 
others soft ? If God suggests to one. He does to 
all, for He is no “ respecter of persons ; ” and that 
some get one thought, while another gets a dif- 
ferent one, is simply because they are cast in a 
different mould. Who is the potter and who is 
responsible, the vessel or its maker ? Perhaps a 
murderer is as necessary in God’s infinite govern- 
ment as the one slain, or as a priest. Who knows ? 

7 


98 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


I have been led into these reflections because I 
said the devil entered into Dr. Parker, as he sat 
in his buggy, with a cloud upon his brow, lower- 
ing at Don and Ina. To one poetically inclined it 
was a beautiful picture. The river lay below, with 
patches of sunlight gleaming here and there upon 
its surface ; while overhead the broken clouds were 
fringed with orange and blue, with deep dark 
caverns in their fleecy folds in the distance. The 
trees with dark green foliage in the foreground 
stood at a respectful distance from each other, 
through whose trunks the doctor could get glimpses 
of the^river and the opposite shore. In the midst, 
with their backs toward him, stood Don and Ina 
evidently very much engaged. Just opposite, a 
steamer was making its way laboriously against 
the strong current, vomiting great columns of 
black smoke from her chimneys, and frothing at 
the mouth, as if she was a living thing. The 
steam — white spirit of water — escaped from the 
pipes with a puff, snort, or shout of freedom, as 
Don was speaking, while the black spirit of the 
wood and coal ascended in graceful curves to 
mingle together in one grand baptism of the 
declining sun’s golden rays. 

‘‘God is a painter,” exclaimed Don, with up- 
raised hands, holding his hat aloft. “Oh for the 
matchless power to produce such colors as those! 
And there are faces in the clouds, Ina ; do you 
not see them ? ” 

“No, Don, you are too fanciful.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


99 


Yes, Ina, plain to be seen ! Just above that 
crimson streak where the blue merges into the 
scarlet. ” 

In a tree near the buggy a flock of blackbirds 
were chanting their evening hymn. The setting 
sun made long, dark shades of the trees reaching 
away toward Don and Ina as if they were arms 
reaching out to embrace them, but the golden 
sun-rays outstripped them, and enveloped the pair 
in a halo of radiance. Ina’s pale pink dress and 
auburn liair blazed like burnished gold, and there 
was a halo about her such as we imagine sur- 
rounds immortal beings. But the doctor saw 
nothing of this. The scene before him suggested 
nothing but a voluptuously formed woman, 
matchless in symmetry and grace, whom he 
yearned to appropriate all to himself. 

He saw nothing but the surface ; there was no 
perception of the gorgeous woman soul, the im- 
mortal, undying being, who inhabited that form 
and whose tastes, aspirations, and longings for the 
perfect and beautiful could not permit her to 
dwell on this earth in a deformed or ugly-shaped 
body. Seeing such would have made him pros- 
trate himself at her feet in abject worship without 
one thought of possession. Whence came the sug- 
gestions— one kind to Dr. Parker, another kind 
to Don ? Don, in gazing at Ina, wanted to paint 
her as he saw her, and could never do it. Why ? 
Because he saw beauty there that no one else 
could see ; he saw beyond the surface, and all un- 


100 


rilE DOUBLE MAN. 


consciously saw his ideal woman. And the sug- 
gestions that came to him were so far beyond his 
powers of realization that he became disgusted 
— dissatisfied with himself and his work. Was 
Don hypnotized by an idea? Such is the road of 
progress ; such is the way of the Lord. Sugges- 
tions are the teachers of the world. 

But the doctor gazed at the form which he 
desired to possess for his own use without a 
thought of her happiness or future welfare other 
than the comforts of her body. 

To hold her in his arms and know that she was 
his was all he wished, not realizing that, were 
she not hound by love, she would escape his em- 
brace, as a ray of light escapes the grasp of the 
hand. Was the doctor hypnotized also ? Sug- 
gestions came, urging him to possess her by all 
means in his power and to delay not, lest she get 
beyond his power. For he knew full well that at 
a certain stage of development the hypnotic sub- 
ject becomes independent of the operator. This 
he did not intend to be for some time at least. 
There is a power in thought which molds and 
fashions us whether we are willing or not. If 
God be a being separate and apart from the things 
He makes, and if He makes things as we do, or 
as a potter makes vessels (as St. Paul has it), then 
the things He makes are subjects of His will, 
made as He intends them, do as they are made to 
do, and exist so long as He intends them to. 
God being, in our conception, Infinite, i. e. with- 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


101 


out bounds, without beginning or end, the source 
of all power, in fact is all power. We are driven 
to the conclusion that His will moves the worlds 
in space and all beings that inhabit those worlds, 
the same as a hypnotizer controls his subject. I 
say, if the above premises are correct, we are 
forced to the conclusion that God’s will is done in 
all things, and, humiliating as it may be, we are 
merely hypnotic subjects. If this be so, if God 
rules, who is responsible ? Header, if you are not 
hypnotized by your early training, by the teach- 
ings of the past, by every religious system that 
ever was, examine and see if you are awake ; 
sliow the world that you are free. Dr. Parker 
did not believe in a personal God ; hence he had 
no idea that he was hypnotized. He held that he 
was free to do as he liked, so far as he had the 
power ; beyond that he did not question. In fact 
he did not believe in any God at all. Neither did 
Don believe in 'A personal God, but he believed in an 
Infinite Spirit pervading all things. He felt that 
this was not a matter of belief at all — he knew. 
He realized that he imbibed this spirit in breath- 
ing, eating, drinking, and more than all other 
ways, thinking. He saw God in every object, 
because he recognized Him in himself ; he claimed 
nothing for himself he did not freely grant to 
others. Realizing that God was in all his sur- 
roundings, he could not do a wrong to anyone, 
because he would wrong God Himself by so 
doing. 


102 


THE DOUBLE 


These ideas controlled him, hence he was hyp- 
notized hy them, but he was awake enough to 
know it. The doctor, however, did not know that 
he was in a deep sleep, in which darkness he him- 
self was demoniac, a spirit of lust and of wrath. 
Don kept his heart soft and tender by constantly 
pitying the follies and miseries of mankind, while 
the heart of the doctor grew hard and callous by 
the practice of his profession and the habit of 
shutting out all pity from his consciousness. This 
is an easy thing for one to do who considers 
himself better than others. A priest, who 
“thanks God that he is not like other men,” is 
doing the same thing and laying up wrath in 
himself. Not “wrath to come,” but the seeds of 
a terrible condition which grows in the soul, filling 
it with darkness and misery. Not that God does 
it, any more than He does all things. Whatever 
man does, God does, for He is the life of all. God 
is man, and man is God. Jesus taught the same 
thing, evidently, for he termed himself ‘ ‘ the Son 
of man ” oftener than any other name. In this 
light, man is responsible and accountable to him- 
self, for God is within, inasmuch as his highest 
conceptions of justice, of right and wrong, are his 
accusers and his judges. If man is not the 
architect of himself, morally and spiritually, then 
all nature lies. All nature says “Provide for 
yourself ! ” He who neglects to so provide must 
suffer, and the same law applies morally as well 
as physically. But remember, no man is inde- 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


103 


pendent. W e are all linked together by the same 
God who inaketh us brethren, ‘‘every man his 
brother’s keeper ; ” not the judge of each other, for 
each one has a judge in himself. “Judge not, 
lest ye be judged, for with the same judg- 
ment wherewith ye judge another, shall ye be 
judged.” Why ? Because we are all one, being 
animated by the same God ; we are alike and 
should “thank God that we are like other men.” 
He who condemns another condemns himself. W e 
will not condemn Dr. Parker, then, for God within 
him is a righteous God, and will judge him 
rightly and punish him according to his deeds, as 
He does all of us who know the right and do it 
not. 

That evening the doctor was all smiles and affa- 
bility. Ina had seldom seen him in so agreeable a 
mood. As usual, he magnetized her and sub- 
mitted several things for her to psychometrize, a 
letter, a photograph, and some samples of medi- 
cine. At last, standing in front of her, he said : 

“Now, Ina ! I am going to will you to do a 
certain thing. I shall not speak it. You must 
read my thought. Are you ready ? ” In a few 
moments she reached out and took his hand, placed 
it on her stomach and whispered, “Yes.” In a 
few moments she added, “ Now I have it.” “ And 
you will do so, ” said the doctor ; ‘ ‘ and you are not 
to remember this command till the time comes. 
Now, good-night ! ” So saying he left Ina 
asleep in her chair. We can judge what the com- 


104 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


mand was when we know what happened. On the 
third night from that time Ina retired to hed as 
usual, and slept sweetly and soundly till midnight, 
then she awoke apparently in her normal state, 
and without lighting a lamp found her way in 
her night-clothes to the doctor’s room. He was 
waiting for her. We close the door as she 
enters. 

Oh, Ina ! Ina ! never, never will you be the 
same. Alas ! how many of your sisters are 
hypnotized as fatally as thou wast, and fully 
as unconsciously seek their own ruin. The 
unspoken wish, the fatal desire, of a libertine is 
poison to the virgin atmosphere of the feminine 
soul. Who are libertines ? Every man at some 
time in his life. ” ^ ^ Whoso looketh on a woman to 

lust after her hath committed adultery already 
in his heart,” said Jesus. God is in the heart, and 
judges the heart, for all acts spring therefrom. 
Spiritual is far more potent than physical action, 
for here is where the poison of crime is distilled. 
All lustful men and women (and who is free from 
it ?) send out from themselves the spirit of lust ; and 
though they may abstain from the physical action 
themselves it is sure to find empty souls in which 
to take root and grow into acts that fill the by- 
ways and brothels with the horrors of licentious- 
ness. Every man who desires a murderer hanged 
hath murder in his own heart, which, flowing out, 
contaminates the atmosphere with violence ; 
which finds a resting -place in the whiskey shops. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


105 


and in the empty heads of weak will, and crime is 
the result. Oh, Ina ! you are not the oidy hypnotic 
subject. Popular ideas destroy freedom of will. 

Mother Grundy ” is a bad mother ! Even being 
in the church fails to make her good. She is a 
Christian with Christ left out. All who fear her 
are hypnotized. They are like those Jesus prayed 
for when dying on the cross, saying, ‘^Father, 
forgive them, they know not what they do.” 
Certainly such a prayer as that, uttered in such 
circumstances and by such lips, carries with it 
through all time, and to the highest and lowest 
spheres of being, its all-potent answer ; and yet 
millions of professed Christians are so psycholo- 
gized with ideas long since dead, which ought to be 
buried with him who gave them utterance, that 
they cannot forgive the Jews to this day for what 
their forefathers did to one of their own kin. Is 
not the world psychologized by the dead ? Who 
knows what influence was brought to bear on Dr. 
Parker ? Oh ! where was the pitying God or the 
mother’s love for the hapless maid that fatal 
night ? 

But do not imagine it was for only one night. 
How long the nocturnal visits to the doctor’s 
room were continued is unknown. Months 
passed, and Ina, still unconscious of her doings 
in connection with the doctor, continued her visits 
to the studio, her rambles with Don. The last 
one is narrated in a previous chapter. 


106 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DOUBLE. 

The night following the day in which Don had 
declared his love to Ina was a night of vast 
import to him. He retired to his closet, there 
to meditate, to commune with himself and his 
Maker upon that which to him was the begin- 
ning of a new life. He seated himself before his 
magic mirror. The ruby lantern cast a weird, 
dull-red glow upon its black surface and upon the 
sitter, leaving all else in the room in obscurity. 
Don began a review of himself by asking : ‘ ‘ Have 
I done well in this thing ?” Scarcely had he 
formulated this query in his mind, when from 
the door, which fastened with an old-time thumb- 
latch, came the click, click, of the latch as it rose 
and fell, sharp, distinct and not to be mistaken. 
Don sprang from his seat, expecting some one to 
come in, but an ominous silence reigned. He 
listened for some movement outside ; the obsti- 
nate door remained closed and not a sound dis- 
turbed the silence. Don knew he had double- 
locked the outer door, but nevertheless he expected 
to meet some one, when, with lamp in hand, he 


• THE DOUBLE MAN. 


107 


cautiously opened the door and peered rapidly 
around. Not a living soul was there, and the 
outer door was securely barred. Now, he was no 
medium, but was trying by these sittings to 
develop those latent powers inherent in every 
one, call them senses if you like, which enable 
one to see and converse with beings of another 
condition or another state of being, whether 
embodied or disembodied ; but he was not expect- 
ing any such thing as a material manifestation.. 
Judge then of his surprise. He could not account 
for the lifting of that latch upon any hypothesis 
other than by some intelligence invisible to him. 

After recovering somewhat from his nervous 
agitation, he seated himself again, and recurred 
to the subject uppermost in his mind. Again he 
queried, ‘^Have I done well in loving and being 
loved ? Have I done well in abandoning my 
cherished determination to live a celibate life ? ” 
Immediately the answer came back in an audible 
whisper, Yes, my son ! you are now a double 
man ! ” This answer seemed to come from the pit 
of his stomach. It is almost impossible to describe 
the surprise, the startled amazement, of Don as 
he leaped from the chair, upsetting the tripod and 
mirror, while cold chills flashed from head to feet 
and back again, seeming to lift every hair of his 
head erect. He lit his lamp quickly and looked 
around the room. All was as usual ; he began to 
feel a little ashamed of his fright, reasoning that 
his imagination had played him a trick, and was 


108 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


adjusting the tripod and mirror, when a low 
smothered laugh, “Ha ! ha ! ” came distinctly from 
his stomach; accompanied by a peculiar sensation 
there that could not be mistaken — a throbbing, 
great heat ; while his brain and nerves felt as 
if a hundred galvanic batteries had been turned 
loose upon him. He reeled, clutched at the chair, 
and fell in a heap upon the floor, in a fit. Yes, 
if you choose to call it that. All was silent for a 
moment, then Don, rising, calmly surveyed the 
room. There were the chair, tripod, mirror, ruby 
lantern, books on the shelves, and his lamp lit on 
a little table by the door. He remembered light- 
ing the lamp, thought he would better extinguish 
it, and for this purpose took a step in that direc- 
tion, when he stumbled against something, and 
looking down, saw himself lying as one dead, 
all huddled up in a heap on the floor. He felt 
weak, but his agitation and fright had disap- 
peared, and in place of them were such exquisite 
sensations of ecstatic pleasure that he thought to 
himself as he dropped into a chair and gazed at 
the body lying there, “If this be death, ’tis 
better than life ; if it be only a trance, it is well 
that men know nothing of it.” Thus looking at 
his lifeless form on the floor, gradually all the 
events of the day and evening came clearly to his 
mind. A feeling of solicitude for the comfort of 
that thing lying so still and deathlike on the floor 
at his feet prompted him to try to lift it into an 
easier position. He found that his hands passed 


THE HOUBLE MAN. 


109 


t'lrough it. Although he felt it he could not 
move it, for his hands seemed to clutch at noth- 
ing ; still there was a sensation of contact. In 
this dilemma the whisper came again quite dis- 
tinctly, approaching an audible voice : “ Blow out 
your light and try again.” 

Don moved towards the lamp and tried to 
extinguish it with a breath, but the lamp burned 
steadily. ‘‘ Hold your breath, and will to blow ! ” 
said the voice. Don did so, and the blaze grew 
shorter and shorter till it went out. By this time 
he had become familiar with the voice ; it failed 
to disturb him in the least ; it seemed as if it were 
himself speaking. 

‘‘Now,” said the voice, as Don was about to 
try to lift the form into an easier position, feeling 
much stronger, and a more natural tangibility in 
his hands — “now, don’t touch your body, but 
simply will to move your limbs as you desire them 
to be in the form before you, being careful not to 
move at all while so willing ; there is a certain 
sympathy existing between you as you now are 
and the form you still own that is dead before 
you, and it will obey your will so long as that 
sympathy exists.” 

“ Ah ! is this death then ?” asked Don. 

“ The same thing,” said the voice, “ only not so 
extreme.” Then he remembered having read of 
the fakirs of India being buried while in such a 
condition, and remaining so buried until a crop of 
grain could be grown and harvested on the grave, 


110 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


and upon being dug up coming to life again. 
As if the voice knew his thoughts there came this 
response: ^‘Certainly, this trance is the same 
thing, only produced in a different manner. You 
can take possession of your body when the sun 
rises again, but with practice you can gradually 
prolong the trance. The success in so doing is by 
learning how to preserve the sympathy, and con- 
fining it to the body. Love is spirit, and sympathy 
is the grosser, material part of spirit. You know 
very little of love*. As you learn more of it ^mu 
will come into the knowledge of how to separate 
sympathy from love, thus leaving the body fully 
or partly charged with the grosser or more 
material spirit, while you can soar away upon the 
pure ethereal part as you . will, upon ‘ angels’ 
wings.’ ” 

Meantime Don was experimenting with the 
body before him ; that is to say, he willed and 
moved in accordance therewith, but the corpse- 
like figure remained motionless. Then he changed 
his tactics — held his breath, willing with all 
his power to move his head in a certain j)osi- 
tion, while he remained still. Gradually the 
head began to tremble, the eyes to twitch, the 
lips to compress, and in a few moments the head, 
as if of its own volition, assumed the position 
desired. Continuing his efforts Don soon had the 
body in an easy iX)sition, like one taking his rest. 
Then he sighed as he looked at the form. Now 
I feel easier.” ‘‘Yes,” said the voice, “ sympathy 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


111 


is the all of forms; it is. the binding force of 
matter, the soul of order, as order is the first 
law of nature. Attraction, chemical affinity, as 
scientists term it, is nothing but sympathy ; hut 
love is the soul of sympathy. You will knowhow 
in time to animate that body nearly the same as 
this one, and you two walk together as two men 
— exactly alike or as different individuals as you 
shall will. Now go ! ” 

Then Don saw a strange thing : the ruby light 
disappeared and in its place there came a pale 
bluish light. The door opened of itself as the 
voice uttered the word “Go !” and the light 
streamed in one long column to the outer door. 
As if without volition, for he certainly had no 
object, he floated rather than walked along the 
column of light, through the door which opened 
as if by magic, out upon the landing, down the 
stairs into the street. Here he became conscious 
that the ecstatic sensations were becoming less 
and less, and as they weakened the light began to 
pale. He began to feel wearied, and thought he 
had best return to his room. He turned and fell 
unconscious in the street. 

The sun was high in the heavens when Don 
awoke to find himself lying on the floor in his 
closet, with the ruby lamp casting a weird radi- 
ance around the little room. He rubbed his eyes, 
looked around in a dazed manner, and muttered, 
“Was it a dream or not 


112 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


CHAPTER IX. 

F ATE . 

While Mr. Albee, the three wives, Don, and 
myself were all more or less involved in the 
mysteries of life, fate was busy with our other 
characters. Ina no longer visited the studio. Her 
unfinished picture stood with face to the wall. 
The doctor essayed his best to establish himself 
upon a footing of cordiality with his ward, but 
from the time of the love-episode by the little 
brook with Don she was a changed being. Her 
laugh and her songs no longer rang out like the 
warbling of a bird. An absent, far-away look 
took the place of the merry twinkle in her 
eyes, sparkling with mirth characteristic of her. 
She became restless, uneasy, as if she had lost 
something, she knew not what. She talked with 
the doctor, but not with the open frankness of 
yore. She looked questioningly at him, and with 
a shrinking which he could not help noticing, and 
he asked : 

Are you not well, Ina ? ” 

^‘Oh, yes, Doctor,” said she why do you 
ask I I am as well as common,” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


113 


‘‘Oh, I noticed a certain languor about you,” 
said he, “ that generally presages fever. You 
have not been mesmerized lately, and I think you 
had best go to sleep this evening and throw off 
this nervous prostration.” 

“ No, no ! ” cried Ina, rising in excitement from 
her chair, and looking at him with a wild look. 

The doctor had noticed that she no longer called 
him “Guardy ” as formerly. He decided to act 
promptly and decidedly. So, taking her by the 
hand, he gently seated her upon the sofa by his 
side, when she hurst into a torrent of weeping. 
The doctor waited till the violence of her sobs was 
quite subdued, when he said : 

“ Ina, this conduct is altogether incomprehen- 
sible. Please explain what it all means. I am 
your guardian, and have the right of a father to 
know.” 

“ Sir ! ” she cried, looking at him with burning 
eyes and flaming cheeks, “ you lost the place in 
my heart as father when you proposed to marry 
me. True, you said afterwards that it was all 
a jest, which I was fool enough to believe, till 
another has entered into my life and awakened 
me to the horrible things that are done while 
I am in a hypnotic trance.” Then she buried her 
face in her hands and wept bitterly. 

He waited a moment, barely able to control 
himself in his .surprise at her vehemence, and 
more by her allusion to another. 

“ Stop, Ina ! what other individual has dared 
8 


114 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


to step into your life — as between you and me ? 
I swear no man sh ” 

The girl sprang to her feet crying out : 

Oh, Doctor, don’t swear. I love him so 
much ! My whole soul is his ; he has not stepped 
into any place you occupy ; my whole heart is 
his, and ” 

‘^Who is it hissed the doctor between his 
teeth, seizing her by the hand. 

‘ ^ Oh, you hurt my hand. Doctor ! let go ; it is 
Don La Velle ! ” Then she sank trembling and 
weeping upon the sofa again. 

The doctor walked rapidly up and down the 
room a few moments, when, pausing in front of 
her, he said : 

‘Mna, did you have the audacity, after what 
has happened between us, to pledge your love to 
him ? ” She looked at him with a puzzled expres- 
sion. Speak ! ” said he, did you ? ” 

What can you mean,” stammered Ina, ^^by 
‘ what has passed between us ’ ? Do you mean in 
the hyp ” 

‘^No ! I mean this : after pledging your love 
to me, did you have the impudence to pretend to 
love him ? ” The doctor was cool now, his resolve 
was taken. With eyes of a basilisk he fixed his 
gaze upon her unflinchingly. There was no pity, 
no mercy in that look. Despair quiets the nerves, 
for it deadens the sensibilities. Tna saw in that 
look, as one sees in a mirror, her fate. Arising', 
she said quietly : 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


115 


I am not aware that I ever pledged my love 
to you, sir ! On the contrary, I told you plainly 
when you proposed the thing to me that it was 
impossible.” 

admit all that,” said he ; ‘^but a few days 
thereafter you wrote me a letter that I have 
locked up in my safe, pledging your undying love 
to me.” 

^^Hold on. Doctor!” wailed the stricken girl, 
whose face was the color of ashes; “if you have 
such a letter it was extorted from me by one of 
your infernal hypnotic spells. Oh, give me back 
the letter and let me leave your sight forever I ” 

“No, no ! ” said he, “not so fast. You must 
not see Don La Velle any more. You can marry 
me if you like any day, or you may never do so, 
just as you like, but this business with La Velle 
must go no farther.” He paused as if waiting 
for a response, and it came in a moment in a 
different manner than he expected. She said, 
looking coolly at him : 

“ Sir, you are assuming too much. I am quite 
old enough to do as I like with my own person. 
I shall henceforth go where I like and do as I 
choose. Good-morning, sir ! ” She strode toward 
the door as she spoke, but he stepped before her, 
saying : 

“ Not so fast, Ina I be reasonable. I don’t want 
you to go away. All I want is for you to promise 
not to see La Velle for say six months ; by that 
time we shall better know the character and 


116 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


stability of the man. If at the end of that time 
he and you desire it and I find him constant^ I 
may ” 

‘‘No, sir,” interrupted Ina, “I will make no 
promises. Besides, I don’t believe I ever wrote 
such a confession to you or to anyone ; let me 
see it.” 

The doctor strode from the room ; returning 
shortly he produced the following letter, which 
he read to her, not permitting her to touch the 
paper, however, but holding it so she could see 
the handwriting. She heard the words he read, 
she saw the writing, and recognized it as her own, 
like one in a dream. Her brain seemed on fire, 
the room whirled about her, and with a low moan 
she sank on the fioor in a swoon. 

The doctor lifted her to the sofa, and while he 
is restoring her to animation let us read the 
letter. 

“ Dear Dr. Parker : 

“ I dearly love you. Yes, better than any man living, 
with my whole heart, and cannot live without you. I 
will marry you whenever yon like. 

“ Your own loving 

“ Ina.” 

The swoon soon passed away, and she sat up 
looking around in a dazed manner. Soon, how- 
ever, the whole horrible truth stole into her mind ; 
but instead of becoming frantic she was quiet 
with a hopeless despair, and looked calmly at him, 
while he, with persuasive, soothing accents tried 


TUE DOUBLE MAN. 


117 


to reason with her upon the folly of opposing his 
will. 

‘‘ I ask nothing unreasonable,’’ said he. Six 
months’ absence will cure you of this infatua- 
tion, I am sure ; but if it does not I will with- 
draw all claim to your hand ” He paused ; 

she shook her head. ^‘Then,” said he, ‘‘if you 
persist in this unreasonable obstinacy, I will see La 
Velle and show him this letter, and if I mistake 
not it will certainly cure him. Meantime, I give 
you time to consider, and for safety, I leave you a 
prisoner in this room. At present you are not 
quite yourself, and I don’t want you running 
about this city alone. Good-morning, my dear.” 
And he was gone ; but Ina heard the key turn in 
the door as he passed out. 

Time passed on. The doctor brought her food 
to the room daily, but she ate very little and 
never replied to his salutations or questions, but 
sat staring into space like one demented. During 
these few weeks Don was in horrible torments. 
Mr. Albee was cured of his hallucinations, if one 
chooses to call them such, but Don could not set 
himself to work at anything. “Ina ! Ina ! ” was 
his constant mental cry. He applied at The 
Newcomb, but was told that the doctor’s rooms 
were closed. He called at the office, and in answer 
to his queries was told that Ina was out of town, 
and the doctor rudely asked what business it was 
to him where she was. He turned away, with a 
heart torn and distracted by conflicting emotions. 


118 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


fears for her safety, not the least doubt of her 
love and truth, but with conjectures as to what 
machinations were at work to alienate her from 
him, or possibly destroy her life. He did not like 
the look in the doctor’s eyes, nor did he believe 
for a moment that she had left the city. He knew 
she would write to him if she were free. He had 
no means wherewith to employ a detective ; be- 
sides he felt that he had no grounds nor personal 
rights in the matter. So he could do nothing 
but wander in the woods where they had often 
wandered together, vainly looking for some trace 
she might have left of her passing ; or sitting 
whole days on the old log by the murmuring little 
brook, watching, waiting, longing for her coming. 
He realized that she had power under certain 
conditions to leave her body, as he had partly 
developed in himself, and he imagined that if 
possible she would come to the old trysting-place, 
the place most sacred on earth, where they had 
exchanged souls. 

But nothing came of it. True, he saw her 
occasionally in his dreams, with hair dishevelled 
and eyes wild and red with weeping, and at such 
times he would spring from his couch with an 
ejaculation of fear and anguish. But he seldom 
got any sleep. 

Worn almost to a skeleton, wild and haggard, 
he wandered alone like a spectre of his former 
self, up and down the bluffs overlooking the 
river. Ofttimes he sought his cabinet and asked 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


119 


questions of his mirror, but nothing came upon 
the dull black disk save a few clouds or streaks 
of light. For indeed, grief and despair furnish a 
poor frame of miod in which to invoke the mystic 
powers. The mind then cannot focalize itself ; 
its rays are scattered, shattered, or broken up. 
There can be no clear sky visible through dense 
clouds. And as to the voice of his second self, not 
even a whisper broke in upon his disturbed soul. 
There was no calmness, no tranquillity within, 
and as a consequence his questions or prayers 
reached only the tornado that was laying waste 
the landscape of his manhood. Furthermore, his 
morbid thoughts and feelings took out of nature 
all the beauties that he formerly beheld with 
rapture. It had the same effect upon him as 
poverty has upon mankind, it bred desperation. 
It may be, and this is my opinion, that Ina’s spirit 
was so interwoven with his, there was such close 
connection between them, that the tornado came 
from her to him. 

It was not long after the stormy interview 
with the doctor when Ina began to feel the pre- 
monitions of motherhood. Imagine, if you can, 
the utter horror of the thoughts of a young and 
innocent girl, upon finding herself in such a con- 
dition, through no volition of her own, and not 
sanctified by love, by a man whom she only re- 
spected, through the machinations of a fiendish 
science. That is bad enough in marriage, God 
knows, but here infinitely worse. Murderers and 


120 


THE DOUBLE MAJV. 


criminals of all kinds are hatched in the in- 
cubators of lust, and yet this exceeded lust. 

Language is powerless to convey a tithe of 
what this girl endured for long days and nights, 
waiting and watching the growing symptoms, so 
as to he doubly sure. Grief had long since spent 
itself. Dry eyes, with a look of madness in them, 
hollow, pallid cheeks, dishevelled hair, careless- 
ness of dress and appearance, all indicated the 
total wreck of the once lovely girl. That she did 
not become a raving maniac at this critical time 
in her life is a matter of surprise to me. 

But let us consider the idea that the spirit 
which sought reincarnation through her was 
a former mistress of Dr. Parker, who had con- 
sequently loved him while living, died loving him, 
her whole being saturated with that love. The 
spirit while condensing in utero must have soft- 
ened and in a great measure toned down the high- 
strung, lofty spirit of the girl, so that the worst 
form of insanity did not appear. 

We know so little of insanity that it is worth 
while to consider in a respectful manner the 
belief of nine-tenths of the human family, quite 
well supported in the Scriptures, viz : the doctrine 
of pre-existence and of reincarnation. In the time 
of Jesus the insane were believed to be possessed 
of devils. 

That the doctrine of reincarnation was currently 
believed in is evident from the question Jesus 
put to his disciples, “ Who do men say that I am ? ” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


121 


The answer given, ‘‘Some say you are Elias, 
and some say John the Baptist risen from the 
dead,” shows the prevalence of this belief among 
the Jews, recognized as truth by Jesus himself by 
his silence upon the subject. 

I think there is too much stress put upon 
heredity. The form, with its blood, flesh, and 
bones, is not the personality at all ; it is merely the 
manifestation of a personality or spirit. Man is 
a spirit, whether embodied or not. Whence come 
the babies ? Are we not surrounded by an army 
of intelligences seeking reincarnation ? Whence 
come the bacteria and animalcula that infest the 
human form ? 

Whence come the ideas that intoxicate and 
make mad the human brain, and even animals ? 
and the diseases that afflict mankind ? What is 
hydrophobia but a disease of the spirit ? All poi- 
sons are spirit, imprisoned, concentrated, embodied 
in different forms, such as liquid, solid, or in the 
tooth of a snake or rabid dog. And is it not 
equally apparent that there are poisonous spirits 
embodied in human form, termed devils, evil 
spirits, or lunatics ? What matters the name ? 
The crimes that are committed prove this hypoth- 
esis. 

The increase of crime shows the nearness of the 
spirit world to this, shows the facility with which 
they, the evil ones, can enter these bodies of ours 
to obsess, change our natures, dethrone reason and 
decency, to defy all laws, to become in fact insane. 


122 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Who can say that such spirits are not born as 
babies^ Having lived on this earth beforehand 
having acquired peculiarities of disposition and 
character, entering into the prospective mother 
they influence her more or less during gestation. 

Facts are abundant in support of this hypoth- 
esis. I have known a man who was born drunk, 
and reeled like a drunken man all his life, begot- 
ten by a drunken father. Another having the 
form, features, and expression of a toad ; a voice 
cracked and croaking, an immense head, sharp wit ; 
but with legs, arms, and body like that reptile. He 
could not stand upright like a man, but had hands 
and feet like claws, with motions of the hands as 
rapid as a toad’s tongue when he catches insects. 
It does not solve the mystery to say that his 
mother was frightened by a toad at a critical 
time in gestation. Why was the toad attracted 
to her path at that particular time ? Chance,” 
you say ; but there is no chance. Law rules all 
things. There is a spiritual law underlying all 
these things, little thought of. 

The lower orders of animate life are all crowd- 
ing for admission into the human plane, and the 
laws of attraction or sympathy and antipathy 
rule. We are controlled mainly by our likes and 
dislikes. Opposites attract each other. 

The dislike of the woman for the reptile species 
attracted that very thing to her sphere. Things 
of a kind do congregate together, but the attrac- 
tion is beyond the things themselves. If the 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


123 


woman had had no dislike for the reptile race, 
but instead had schooled herself to look upon them 
in kindness and pity, as objects of God’s love and 
providence, she had looked calmly at the toad as 
he crossed her path, without a shudder or shock 
of any kind. Love banishes all evil ; it closes the 
door of the spirit so that evil cannot enter. That 
was why Jesus said, Resist not evil.” In wisdom, 
evil is in our consciousness ; it does not exist other- 
wise. To eliminate this consciousness of evil from 
ourselves is to destroj^ all pain, repugance, hate, 
fear, pride, envy, in fact all passions and all admi- 
ration of objects. A superhuman task; still we 
may approximate that condition, wherein the sea 
of our spirits lies hushed and calm, as the sea of 
Galilee obeyed the divine command : ‘‘Peace, be 
still ! ” 

The contempt and repugnance that Dr. Parker 
felt, and that every libertine feels, for the chas- 
tity of the female sex ; the disgust he felt foi' 
what he conceived to be a pretense of virtue, 
called into his sphere the spirits of abandoned 
women, who, despising virtuous women with the 
same contempt that had been meted out to them 
upon earth for their lack of virtue, are actuated 
only by a sj^irit of revenge upon their own sex. 
What wonder, then, that his blood was charged 
with the fires of lust, the very life of devils, and 
the hotbed of all crime and evil ? In this disgust 
of virtue there is nothing more satisfactory to a 
libertine than the seduction of the cold, haughty 


124 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


devotees of chastity. Thus the spirit of the doc- 
tor’s old mistress, dwelling in his sphere, ( 30 uld 
not help charging his spirit with all her charac- 
teristics, and instigating him to the ruin of the 
cold, chaste, virgin Ina. Not that he desired 
her ruin, as he did not look at such things 
in that light ; but rather as conforming to 
nature’s demands, a fulfillment of her objects 
and laws. 

For months before Ina awoke from the hypno- 
tic spell cast upon her by the doctor, she could 
not resist going to his room at certain hours of 
the night. The spirit of his former mistress had 
fairly taken up its abode in her. She was ob- 
sessed, not by an idea, hut by a devil. During 
pregnancy no woman can he wholly herself. The 
work of creation is a spiritual work. In the dark 
laboratories of woman’s body takes place the 
union of an immortal soul with a material form ; 
the union of what has been with that which is to 
be ; the changing of one personality into that of 
another. 

The spirit about to change its conditions per- 
meates the mind and body of the prospective 
mother, and changes her in many ways. I have 
seen a woman chained and manacled, a howling 
maniac, while in that condition, who at other 
times was as sane as anyone. Many are caused 
to be thieves, drunkards, prostitutes, etc., during 
that period ; and some awful crimes have been 
committed by pregnant women who at other 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


125 


times were exemplary in all their conduct. They 
are not wholly themselves. How can they be, 
when they are gradually being taken possession 
of by a force often foreign to themselves ? — a 
spirit that, in order to produce a superior being, 
must perfectly amalgamate with the mother. 
Nay, more, it must be a harmonious unioD of 
father, mother, and spirit, tlwee in one. The 
spirit being reincarnated may be superior to both 
parents, in which case the amalgamation is 
altogether imperfect ; hence the imperfections 
among men. In case the spirit be inferior 
morally (often the case), the mother’s moral 
tone will be lowered, and she will have 
morbid feelings, strange fancies, longings, 
vicious thoughts and acts. If she is a strong- 
minded woman she controls by suppressing 
the external expression thereof, which, however, 
finds expression in the unborn by birthmarks, 
eccentricities, deformities of body, inordinate 
thirst for stimulants, mental aberration, moral 
depravity, etc., etc., to the end of the chapter. 
But the poor mothers are not to blame ; the trou- 
ble originates mainly with the men. Souls come 
through the father, and the man of low instincts, 
and passions — hate, fear, revenge, etc. — calls into 
his sphere the same class of spirits. They pass 
through liim, and the mother receives them in 
utero, where the spirit that accompanies the soul, 
as an aura surrounds a flower, gradually concen- 
trates or deposits itself in a form. 


V2Q 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


been hypnotized she was thoroughly prepared for 
obsession. But after Don’s declaration of his love, 
the obsessing spirit was driven out of her mind, 
although it retained its hold on her body, thus 
indirectly influencing her mind, and suggesting 
suicide. The suggestion to visit the doctor’s room 
was so strong that it took all her will-power to 
restrain herself. When fully satisfied of her con- 
dition and the power he had over her, she resolved 
upon suicide. 

Dr. Parker had often tried to draw her into con- 
versation, thinking \o arouse her spirit : for he 
was an able physician, and knew that such apathy 
indicated mental aberration if prolonged. Of 
course he did not know the condition she was in, for 
he did not think pregnancy possible in the hypno- 
tic state. But to all his overtures and advances 
she turned a deaf ear. At last, as time brought 
more vividly to her consciousness the awful con- 
dition she was in, she formed a desperate resolve. 
So one day when the doctor called he was sur- 
prised at the change in costume, countenance, and 
manner of his ward. She met him with a smile 
and outstretched hand, craved pardon for her 
naughtiness, and acceded to his conditions. The 
doctor scanned her face closely to detect if possible 
any acting or pretense on her part. Failing to 
perceive any such thing in her looks or manner, 
he granted her the liberty she wished, and pro- 
posed to begin with an excursion on the steamer 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


127 


Atlas, which was going on the morrow to Mem- 
phis and return, expressly for the pleasure of a 
few score of the elite of the city. 

There will be plenty of music and dancing,” 
he told her, the best of fare, and no end of 
sight-seeing and fun.” 

Oh, I am so glad ! ” cried Ina, clapping her 
hands and dancing around, apparently in great 
glee. 

As he left the room he thought, “ Now I must 
see La Velle and make all sure there, and then 
all will work satisfactorily.” 

Thus muttering, he sought the studio. Don, 
for once, was at home, and received his visitor 
with a quiet, cool, self-possessed manner, for the 
first sight told him that the enigma was near 
solution. 

After the usual salutations the doctor said : 

‘‘I have come this morning, Mr. La Velle, at 
the solicitation of my ward, to pay you the stip- 
ulated price of her portrait and remove it to her 
room.” 

Don was fairly electrified by this demand. All 
the instinctive aversion for the man that he had 
always felt surged with redoubled force to his 
mind and fairly choked his utterance. It was, 
however, only momentary. Fixing his piercing 
gray eyes searchingly upon the doctor, he said, 
slowly, as if weighing each word : 

‘‘Sir, I am surprised at you; there was no 
stipulated price for that picture unless I made a 


128 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


success of it. I have not completed it, and don't 
think I ever shall. ” 

‘‘As to that,” replied tlie doctor, “I was the 
one to be pleased ; if I am satisfied, even if it is 
incomplete, you certainly are not the one to com- 
plain ; here is your money. ” And he counted 
out fifty dollars, saying, “This is the amount 
agreed upon, I believe ; as for myself, it is a 
matter of total indifference, only Ina wants the 
picture.” 

“You may put up your money,” said Don ; 
“ the picture is not for sale at any price what- 
ever ; but if Miss Ina wants it, let her call for it ; 
in case she should do so, I might put a few 
finishing touches on it,” he added, in a lower tone 
of voice, as if speaking to himself. 

The doctor arose from his seat, saying : “As to 
Miss Ilia’s ever visiting this studio again, that is 
totally out of the question ; and as you are ob- 
stinate, not to say pig-headed, I will let you 
know, sir, that I am to be considered in this 
transaction. Look at that, sir ” (holding 
Ina’s letter before him), “ and know that I am 
not only her guardian but her affianced hus- 
band.” 

Don gazed at the letter with eyes protruding and 
hands clinched. The doctor, coolly folding it, 
added, ‘ ‘ I hope this will end the matter between 
you. You see, I know all ; Ina has told me of 
your presumption, and laughed at the little joke 
she played off on you. And now, to end the mat- 


TIIK DOUBLE MAN. 


129 


ter and relieve your necessities, take the money, 
and give me the picture.” 

“Not for worlds ! ” said Don, suddenly pausing 
as if struck dumb, gazing steadily at the door. 

The doctor, seeing him looking so intently that 
way, turned instinctively towards the door. But 
he saw nothing, while Don saw Ina standing 
just inside the door dressed exactly as she had been 
the last time he saw her. With an exclamation 
of surprise and joy, he rushed towards her, but 
ere he reached the door she placed her finger on her 
lip and vanished. The doctor might well be puz- 
zled by this strange conduct, and asked : 

“ What troubles you, Mr. La Velle ? ” 

“ Nothing,” replied Don, wiping great drops of 
sweat from his brow, and seating himself, con- 
scious of terrible though pleasant vibrations 
thrilling his entire frame. Looking at the doctor 
a moment later, and perceiving a look upon his 
face very difficult to define— a mixture of pity, 
commiseration, contempt, and curiosity — he said : 

“ Excuse me, doctor, I have not been well for 
some time, and if you have no further business 
with me I will bid you good-morning.” 

“Good-morning,” muttered the doctor, shrug- 
ging his shoulders ; and drawing his neck down, 
he strode from the room, the thump, thump, of 
his cane jarring discordantly among the vibra- 
tions in Don’s system. 


9 


130 


TUE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTER X. 

A SPECTRE. 

Scarcely had the echoes of the doctor’s steps 
and the thump of his cane upon the stairs died 
away, when Ina again appeared, nearer to him. 
The vibrations grew stronger and stronger as she, 
approaching, beckoned him to fob ow her. Indeed, 
he would have sprung into her arms the instant 
she appeared, but the strength had all gone out 
of him. There was no fear about it, although he 
realized it was a spectre. He believed in ghosts, 
but this was one from a living person ; why then 
should he fear ? She signed to him to come ; he 
tried to arise, but fell back more exhausted than 
ever. She came close, and, stooping, laid her hand 
gently on his forehead. A shock such as he had 
never felt before passed through him, and all was 
dark. But he had not lost consciousness. On 
the contrary, at the shock he started to his feet, 
but blind. It seemed to him as if his eyes were 
closed. Opening them, he saw Ina smiling at 
him. They embraced each other, and she said 

Come,” and moved towards the door. Don 
turned instinctively and saw himself lying like a 
dead man upon the sofa. But he cared nothing ; 


THE nOUBLE MAN. 


rsi 

whether dead or alive, what mattered ? He 
was with Ina, and he followed her from the 
room. 

Eeachiiig the street, she placed her hand on his 
arm. Oh ! what sweet ecstasy of feeling vibrated 
through and through him, as they walked, her 
step keeping exact time with his. The sidewalks 
were wet with a drizzling rain, and many pedes- 
trians with umbrellas turned to look at them as 
they passed, for some recognized the doctor’s 
ward, while more recognized the artist, surprised 
at their unprotected condition in the rain. They 
soon arrived at the Newcomb House, which the 
doctor had entered a few minutes before them. 
At the foot of the stairs (for the Newcomb is on 
the second floor) they were almost run over by 
the porter, who, hatless and in his shirt-sleeves, 
ran at headlong speed down the street. They 
mounted the stairs, and reached the door of Ina’s 
room. Many ladies, boarders, and servants had 
crowded into the room and obstructed the door- 
way, so that Don had some little difficulty in ob- 
taining entrance, and in . doing so Ina became 
separated from him, and failed to enter the room. 

There was some confusion, and they were all 
asking at once, ^^What is the matter?” Don 
forced his way to the foot of the bed, and saw 
Ina lying there dead, while the doctor was en- 
deavoring with all his skill to resuscitate her. In 
a very short time two other physicians arrived, 
one the doctor’s brother, the other Dr. Shaw. 


132 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


‘‘What is it?” they asked at the same mo- 
ment. 

“ Prussic acid,” answered the doctor ; “ there is 
the bottle,” pointing to one on the stand at the 
head 'of the bed. “I think she is quite dead ; 
but let us try the stomach pump.” 

“Here it is !” said Dr. Shaw. They forced it 
down her throat and began to work it. It was 
of no use, however, and they soon desisted. 

“ She is dead beyond a doubt ! Send for the 
coroner,” said Dr. Parker, suddenly turning to 
the crowd. As he did so his eyes fell on Don 
La Yelle. 

“You here, you scoundrel ! behold your work ! 
How dare you intrude here ? Leave the room 

this mo ” Just at that moment a wild, piercing 

shriek came from the hall, and everybody rushed 
out to see what new trouble had come. A lady 
had fainted, but it was only a momentary faint, 
induced probably by the shriek. As soon as she 
could speak she fairly shouted ; 

“ Oh, doctor ! Ina isn’t dead at all ! I saw her 
plainly before I fainted, looking as natural as 
life ! That one there is some other woman ! I 
saw her here ! Where is she ? ” The doctor and 
all began to search, but no Ina could be found 
except the one who lay with livid lips, through 
which froth was slowly oozing, pinched and hollow 
cheeks, eyes wide open, with a look of horror and 
agony, gazing upward unflinchingly, as if protest- 
ing to high heaven her innocence of any crime. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


133 


Her features were distorted, as if mortal agony 
still racked the beautiful form. Don disappeared 
in the crowd. 

I had just returned that day from a short trip 
downr the river, and naturally called on Don on 
my way home. Finding the door open, I entered 
and found him lying on the sofa apparently asleep. 
I waited a few minutes expecting he would 
awake, but seeing no sign of animation, I tried 
to arouse him. He was as limp as a rag. There 
was no respiration, no heaving of the chest, and I 
could scarce discover the faintest flutter of his 
heart. So I sat down to await results. I did not 
have to wait long, till I heard footsteps ascending 
the stairs, and to my astonishment and utter 
confusion, Don walked into the room, and with a 
glad smile grasped my hand in his. I looked at 
the body on the sofa, to he certain that it was 
Don, then I looked at the other one, and I detected 
a shade of difference. The face of the new-comer 
was flushed a little, the cheeks were fuller, the 
flesh was softer, finer, and semi-transparent, yet it 
was the same old Don in either case. He never 
noticed the form on the sofa, hut drawing a chair 
near me began to talk, and after a few common- 
place remarks told me. that Dr. Parker’s ward 
had committed suicide while the doctor was 
visiting him. He told it with the utmost indiffer- 
ence, as one relates something long past. Know- 
ing the relation that existed between Don and 
Ina, I was surprised at so little feeling being 


134 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


manifested in the recital, and so expressed myself. 
To which he replied : 

‘‘My friend, you little know the nature of 
spiritual love if you imagine that grief can have 
any place or part therein.” Then, turning to the 
body on the sofa, added : “ When I am in that 

body I shall weep and wail for my love departed, 
because then I am in the bonds of sympathy, and 
connected to the whole universe of woe that not 
merely surrounds me, but is interwoven into 
every fibre of my being. My love is then of a 
mundane, or limited nature, because it lacks 
that which makes it free. Spiritual love is 
composed of love, will, and wisdom ; while mun- 
dane love is composed of lust, self, and ignorance, 
or sympathy, selfishness, and intelligence. Now 
‘ Love lieth at the foundation,’ for out of it grows 
the spiritual or immortal man, and the first-born 
of love is will ; in other words, the counterpart 
or masculine of love is will, and from the perfect 
development or union of these two is born wis- 
dom. There can be no wisdom unless the will 
begets it in love, and a man’s wisdom is always 
exactly according to his love capacity. Having 
thus briefiy alluded to the true philosophy of being, 
I will explain the spiritual condition I am now in. 
When out of that body I am free according to 
my will. I can see, for matter has no existence 
for me, save as I will to come en rapport with it ; 
and there are no obstructions, no barriers, no 
limits, no time, nor space to spirit. You see me 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 135 

in this body, simply because I will it to he. I 
can dissolve it in a moment, and re-form it the 
next, because by wisdom are the laws (or inodes 
of action) of matter comprehended (surrounded, 
enclosed, included) and moved hy the will. Ac- 
cording to such action is love transformed, or 
transmuted into forms. I cannot take on any 
form I choose to at present, because I have not in- 
vestigated far enough, and any body I may make 
at present will take the same form ; for the same 
laws prevail that govern a scar made upon your* 
person forty or more years ago and still remaining 
in your flesh, although the flesh is entirely renewed 
every seven years. Mundane love is limited to 
one or a few things. While in that body I love 
Ina ; when out of it, the form signifies nothing ; 
her spirit — her love — flows into mine, and ive are 
one, and from this union comes wisdom, the cre- 
ative power called God. 

‘‘Do you not perceive that I, the masculine 
principle, correspond to will, while Ina, the fem- 
inine, corresponds to love ? When we became 
one the spiritual body was begotten, in which we 
dwell together, being enabled thereby to enter 
into the kingdom of God, Infinite Wisdom ; for ' 
indeed wisdom doth not enter into us, we enter 
into wisdom. 

I was fairly fascinated by the ideas uttered, by 
his gestures and glowing words, the radiance of 
his countenance, which seemed to me to grow 
brighter ; his eyes, shining like stars, carried 


136 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


conviction to my very soul, and I was inclined to 
shout Truly God doth dwell in this temple, the 
human body.” I could not withdraw my eyes 
from him. Turning to the form on the sofa he 
stretched out his hands over it and cried : 

Awake ! arise, 0 sleeper ! ” A thin, transparent 
mist of a bluish-white appearance issued from 
his hands and descended upon the head of the 
sleeper ; a respiration, a trembling, a few spas- 
modic starts, and Don number one sat up and 
looked curiously at number two. Then his 
countenance changed ; a look of agony distorted 
his features ; burying his face in his hands he 
wept, and between his sobs moaned : Oh, Ina ! 

Ina ! my beautiful love ! my soul ! why hast 
thou done this violence to thyself and me ? By 
this act thou hast severed thyself from me 
throughout vast aeons of time.” 

Don number two looked at him a moment, 
while the internal agony convulsed him, but I saw 
no look of misery on that radiant countenance. On 
the contrary he smiled, saying, ‘ ‘ ^ Those who love 
most suffer most ; ’ thus it must ever be ! there 
is no birth without agony ! ” Then stretching 
out his hand toward number one, he said : 

“ My son ! what knowest thou of spirit ? Dost 
not thou know that love and mercy are one ? 
‘Judge not, lest ye be judged by the selfsame judg- 
ment,’ for when you judge others you pass 
sentence upon yourself. Why weepest thou, 0 
mortal ? Knowest thou not that there is nothing 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


137 


done on earth except it be done in mercy ? Thou 
speakest as the priests do, who know nothing of 
God except what they read in a book made by other 
men thousands of years ago. The wrath of God ! 
Stories told to allure and frighten the ignorant. 
My son, look up ! the heavens smile always ; 
storms are transient, but the smile of heaven is 
eternal. Thy tears rebuke God. Have done 
with them ! Spirit doth not suffer, neither can 
it weep. Wisdom seeth all things, knoweth 
all things, even the end from the beginning, if 
such ever was or ever can be. Immortality can- 
not suffer.” 

Don number one ceased weeping, and looking 
earnestly at number two, said : 

^^Thou callest me son ! why callest thou me 
son ? Are we not one and the same ? ” 

Aye ! ” answered number two, “ I am the voice 
thou didst hear sounding within thee. I am what 
I am ! Thou thinkest I came from thee. So I 
did. Is it not written : ‘ These bodies are the 

temples of the living God. Before thou wast I 
am’? Hence I called thee my son. By my will 
and love thou art ; seest thou not ? ” 

I perceive,” said number one, passing his hand 
over his face, as said the Man of love and sorrow 
in the olden time, ‘1 and my father are one.’ 
Blessed be the name of father ! ” So saying they 
clasped each other in an embrace — but lo ! when I 
expected them to separate, one of them had dis- 
appeared. 


138 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


He seized my hand, and silently we gazed in 
each other’s eyes. The look of anguish had dis- 
appeared, a smile wreathed his lips, and his eyes 
shone with a heavenly luster I had never before 
seen. 

Did you see and hear us ? ” he asked, 
surely did,” I replied. 

‘‘Then it is no dream, no trance experience! 
Do you know that Ina is dead ? ” 

“ I just heard it from you ; but, Don, there is 
no death to the true man.” 


THJE DOUBLE MAN. 


139 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE INQUEST AND BURIAL. 

When the doctor had left Ina that morning 
he thought he had conquered her, and went his 
way to have an understanding with Don. She 
watched him from her window till he passed 
around the corner. Then she left the hotel, and 
at the nearest drug-store procured for the 
doctor (she told the derk) a bottle of prussic acid. 
Hastening to her room she speedily dropped a letter 
to the doctor in his box, and another in the box 
at the street corner, addressed to Don La Velle. 
Then hastening to her room she locked the door 
and fell on her knees, murmuring : “0 Father ! 
have pity on Thy distracted child ! If what I do 
be a sin in Thy sight, Thou wilt make this poison 
inert, and leave me on this earth a little longer 
to suffer for the sins of others ! If, however, it 
he Thy will that I leave this body, do not, I pray 
Thee, take me to Thyself, but leave me with Don, 
and give me power to be an instrument of Thy 
vengeance upon the man who made life on earth 
a curse to me. Amen ! ” Then quickly rising she 
swallowed the contents of the bottle. She did not 
suffer long ; her spirit was almost free already ; 


140 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


her mind was intensely set upon going, and she had 
been so many times hypnotized that her spirit 
readily separated from the body. She stood beside 
it, seeing without emotion the rending asunder 
of the atoms composing it, gaining strength as 
dissolution freed the atoms of the sympathy we 
term animal life. She watched the body till it 
ceased struggling, when a great 5^earning came 
over her to see Don. As she approached and laid 
her hand upon the door-knob, the door opened to 
her, greatly to her surprise, for she knew it to 
be locked. She fairly flew along the street iinper- 
ceived by those she passed, and as we have seen 
entered the studio and interrupted their conver- 
sation by becoming visible to Don but not to the 
doctor ; for the moment she entered that room 
she took on the material emanations from those 
two men, by reason of which her spirit body 
became grosser, the vibrations less. Don saw her 
because the vibrations in himself corresponded 
with hers, while the doctor’s vibrations were as 
slow as those of ordinary men, which are 
scarcely felt at all, producing spiritual blind- 
ness. 

When she laid her hand upon Don’s forehead, 
and number two appeared, tliere was a union of 
love and will, and control of elements became pos- 
sible, so that by a mere wish material forms took 
the place of the ethereal, and by reason of this 
grossness they walked, and were visible to all. 

The doctor, flnding her door locked, and no 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


141 


response being made to his demands for ad- 
mission, threw his broad shoulder with such 
force against the door that it burst open, dis- 
closing a sight that he little dreamed of. 

She lay quite still, and the doctor thought her 
probably in a fainting fit, but seeing the bottle 
labeled prussic acid, he comprehended the situation 
in a moment and opened his medicine-case, but 
there was no antidote therein. Then shout upon 
shout rang out for help, which speedily came, 
filling the room with the servants and boarders. 
Some ran for other physicians, while others ran 
for the police. We have seen the result. 

All that remained was for the coroner to do his 
duty, which he speedily entered upon by taking 
possession of the room and its contents, and es- 
tablishing a policeman as guard. Let us pass 
briefly over the details of the inquest. The doctor 
was the principal witness, save the bottle of 
poison and the clerk who sold it to her. No one 
suspected in the least that Dr. Parker had any 
hand in this sad affair, and although her form 
suggested the cause for her death by her own 
hand, it was only briefly alluded to. One man 
of the jury did suggest an autopsy, but the cor- 
oner replied that her appearance, coupled with 
the testimony of the examining physician, was 
sufficient to satisfy any reasonable man as to her 
condition and the cause that led her to take her 
own life. So a verdict of ‘^suicide ” was rendered, 
but the causes which led to it were only whis- 


142 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


pered about. On the same day Dr. Parker was 
busy interviewing the different clergymen to en- 
gage one to conduct funeral services for his ward. 
He met no success. They all refused on the plea 
that a suicide was already past mercy, and that 
it were blasphemy to even ask Grod to pardon her. 

He called upon Father Jerome, an old Cath- 
olic priest, almost ready for the grave^ and found 
him at the home of an old man, who, it was sup- 
posed, was at his dying hour. The old man was 
sitting in an arm-chair for a photographer to 
take his picture (a thing he had never done 
before), while the priest, in a long black robe, was 
reading in some unknown tongue out of a book. 
The doctor waited ; the artist adjusted his instru- 
ment ; the priest ceased reading ; and the wife and 
son begged the old man to compose his features 
to look as well as possible. I think the poor 
wretch tried his best, but I never saw a more 
horrible face pictured in all my life. I will add 
in passing that this old man was rich and a miser, 
and when the photo was presented to the family, 
with the bill for payment, they showed it to the 
old man — for he did not die at that time as ex- 
pected — and he was so angry at the horrible face, 
declaring it was a baboon, and made such a vig- 
orous protest — more particularly at the charges — 
about the waste of his money, that he actually 
got well in spite of the doctor, the priest, and 
his own family. 

But to return to my story. After the old man 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


143 


had distorted his features in various ways to suit 
the suggestions of his family, and the click of the 
camera told them it was done, the artist, packing 
up his tools, said : 

‘‘Father Jerome, I believe you claim to be a 
representative of Christ, do you not ? ” 

“ Certainly, my son,’’ said the priest. 

“Well, if so, why don’t you lay your hands on 
that sick man and heal him, as the Master did ? 
You know He said, ‘ Greater works than these 
shall ye do.’ ” 

“ Tut, tut ! my son, the age of miracles is 
past ; but I can send his soul to heaven or to hell, 
just as I choose ; isn’t that greater work than 
healing the sick ? Isn’t the soul greater than the 
body ? ” Of course that settled it. 

To the request of Dr. Parker that the priest 
should officiate at the burial of his ward, he 
lifted up his holy hands in horror. 

“It is contrary to our holy religion. Doctor, to 
ask God to pardon such a sinner ! She is a lost 
soul. I should be mocking God to ask it ! No, 
no ! my son, there is no hope for such. ” 

So poor Ina, sinned against, but not sinning, 
judged without a hearing by men calling them- 
selves godly, was buried without a prayer being 
offered over her grave. I think it just as well. 
What matter a few words addressed to our Father 
in behalf of the dead ? God doeth His will in the 
heavens ; why limit His power ? The earth is a 
small affair compared to the universe. Think 


144 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


you He cares more for one than another ? It is 
not mercy poor Ina needs at His hands, it is 
simply justice. We shall see if God is just, ere 
we are done with this tale. ‘‘ Vengeance is Mine, 
saith the Lord ; I will repay,” say the Scriptures ; 
but who knows He ever said it ? It is simply the 
idea of some barbarian who saw God’s wrath or 
vengeance in the workings of natural laws, long, 
long ago. Did it never strike you, kind reader, 
that our ideas of justice are most brutal ? Justice 
upon the wrongdoer never made anything right 
yet ; no ! nor never will. A wrong done is in- 
creased by vengeance being taken upon the 
wrongdoer. Our ideas of justice are vindictive, be- 
ing copies from the code of Moses, ‘ ‘ An eye for an 
eye, tooth for tooth, life for life ; ” they cannot 
be otherwise than vindictive or vengeful. Oh, 
how long shall we worship the past ? The dead 
sit in the chair of the judge, who is the veriest 
corpse of past ages ! who draws all his pabulum of 
justice from a pile of books full of communications 
from the long since dead. Spirits of tlie past con- 
trol courts as well as priests. These bow down 
and cry holy ! holy ! to ancient, worn-out theories 
of justice and theology, out of which the soul of 
the race is slowly being born. A new being, with 
new ideas, is bursting loose from its grave-clothes, 
as Jesus did in the sepulcher, leaving them 
behind ! 

“ Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of 
heaven ? It is like unto a little leaven, which a 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


145 


woman took and put in three measures of meal/’ 
yet a little while and “the whole mass was 
leavened.” The kingdom of heaven is composed 
of ideas, which, descending like a grain of mustard 
seed, the smallest of all seeds, take root in con- 
genial soil — a mind fertile and new — and grow 
apace. “Men do not put new wine into old 
bottles.” Why? Because the bottles of the 
ancients were made of the skins of animals, and 
the fermentation of new wine therein would 
burst the bottles asunder. Old theology may 
properly be compared to the old bottles of the 
ancients, made of the skins of animals. New 
ideas, ideas of progress, are not in harmony there- 
with ; they are too expansive. They are de- 
structive to primitive or barbaric conditions, called 
conservative. Old bottles have given place to 
new ; old ideas are surely giving place to modern 
thought ; the new wine of the kingdom of Christ 
is rapidly fermenting. 

“ Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of 
the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink 
it new in the kingdom of Love.” So said the 
Christ, and lo! it cometh, stealthily, as a thief 
cometh at night. And who shall abide His com- 
ing ? Not the old bottles ! Not the old institutions 
of religion and law, that judge wrongfully with- 
out knowing, and damn the sinner by rote out of 
an old book, out of old bottles made of the skins 
of beasts. Away with a clergy who refuse to 
minister to the heart sore and afflicted ! Away 

lO 


146 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


with your pretense of holiness ! All we want is 
the warm and tender heart of humanity — the 
child heart, free from guile, and free from judg- 
ments of the erring — hearts full of pity and 
compassion. 

A splendid procession of carriages followed the 
hearse that bore the remains of Ina to the grave ; 
for the doctor had money, which means, he had 
friends and influence. He seemed a stricken 
man ; standing by the grave, the hollow thud of 
the clods of earth as they resounded upon the 
coffin struck ominously upon his consciousness, 
and he seemed startled when a voice from one 
near him said in low and solemn tones : ‘Ht is the 
way of all the earth ; Grod’s will he done ! ” He 
looked at the speaker and recognized Mr. Albee, 
and being seized by a sudden rage, said, his voice 
grating harshly with suppressed emotion : 

don’t think Grod, even supposing there is 
any, has had anything to do with it. If He has, 
He is a demon. If He knew of it and was power- 
less to prevent it, he is not God at all. If He has 
power to prevent such things, and does it not. He 
is not worthy of worship ! Don’t talk to me, old 
man, of God ! ” And then he turned as if to 
walk away. 

Meantime the shovels had ceased to work, and 
the multitude were listening in silence that was 
oppressive. Then spoke up ^^old man Albee,” 
saying : 

‘ ‘ You are irreverent, sir ! I will speak of God’s 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


147 


justice ; perchance you may feel it some day if 
not now. God in mercy doth not take away our 
loved ones when they die ; they remain for a season 
to comfort our bereaved hearts : and even so in 
His justice He leaves those we hate, or who hate 
us, to mete out His justice upon the wrongdoer. 
I never saw your ward that I know of, but there 
stands by your side a tall, well-formed maiden, 
whose hair is the color of a golden sunset. She 
says her name is Ina Grey, your ward, and that 
she is not going away from you ; and a look of 
malignant hate flashes from her bright-blue eyes 
as she looks at you. She carries in her arms 
something that I cannot describe — ah ! she says 
it is your baby, but I c ” 

He never finished that sentence, for a blow 
from the doctor felled him to the ground, and the 
doctor^ taking the arm of a friend, walked away. 

He returned to his office, where he spent the 
the night, alternately drinking heavily of brandy, 
and trying to sleep on his sofa. But little sleep 
he got that night. Something had disturbed 
him. The words of that -crack-brained spirit- 
ualist kept running in his mind. It was not the 
publicity of it that made him cringe, for he, with 
his standing in society, his money, need not fear 
anything on that score. In point of fact he was 
a stranger to fear ; and, moreover, he had set the 
public on another scent by covertly hinting to the 
examining physician, after the inquest was over, 
that Ina had a lover of whom he did not approve. 


148 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Thus he felt assured (and rightly so) of the public 
sympathy instead of censure. But still an in- 
tangible something made him restless and wake- 
ful. Glass after glass of the choicest brandy 
failed that night to bring repose. It had no effect 
upon him. In the morning he got into his buggy 
and drove many miles into the country, thinking 
that a drive amid country scenes would have a 
salutary effect upon him. As he came back, the 
thought of the room where Ina had died made 
him shudder, and seeing a neat little cottage for 
rent, by the roadside, in a thinly-settled part of 
the suburbs, he engaged it upon the spot. Ee- 
turning to the hotel he hired a man to pack up 
his belongings, and he moved everything that very 
evening. A few things he carried to his buggy, 
and in doing so his eyes fell on the letter-box. 
Possibly there might be a letter, he thought, and 
so there was, one in Ina’s handwriting. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


149 


CHAPTEE XII. 

AT THE TOMB. 

Seated upon a low tombstone, during the 
burial of Ina Grey, was Don La Velle. He min- 
gled not with the crowd, nor did he seem to take 
note of what was going on. 

Alone, at some distance from the scene, he sat 
with bowed head and clasped hands. Thus he sat 
long after the crowd had dispersed, motionless as 
a statue, till the sun had gone down in his golden 
bath, and night spread her pall over the fair face 
of the sleeping earth, as a mother covers her in- 
nocent child’s face to shut out the light while it 
sleeps. As the stars began to look out of the 
limitless vault of heaven, he roused himself and 
peered into the night, exclaiming, as he raised his 
clasped hands above his head, ^^0 sun ! 0 earth ! 
O darkness ! mysteries of being ! tell — oh, tell 
me why I exist ! ” But no response came, save 
the warbling of a nightingale in a tree hard by. 
The stars grew brighter and brighter, while 
slowly in the northeast a bright comet streamed 
across the dark vault, leaving a long tail of light 
behind. This diverted his thoughts from himself, 
and a feeling of wonder and awe stole over him 


150 


THE DOUBLE MAX. 


as he realized that that comet had been a hun- 
dred years absent, journeying, flying with incon- 
ceivable rapidity through space, visiting unnum- 
bered worlds in its flight, tarrying at none ; 
wheeling through space, unspent and untiring 
throughout unnumbered ages, a swift messenger 
of the Gods — and for what ? 

What message dost thou bring ? ’’ Don 
suddenly exclaimed ; ‘ ^ what elements dost thou 
bring to our sun ? or what elements dost thou 
gather up from the growing and wasting worlds 
thou passest by in thy SAvift flight ? Dost thou 
take something away ? And at the same time 
dost thou leave the elixir of immortal youth with 
our sun in exchange ? Thou wheelest around the 
sun as if thou dost love him and long for an 
embrace. Who taught thee the way in trackless 
space ? Art thou intelligent ? then tell us what 
thou flndest in the abyss thou hidst in so long ! 
One hundred years since thou left us ! And dost 
thou not need rest ? Ah ! I hear thee ; thou hast 
a voice ! Thou sayest, I am a teacher of the 
inhabitants of countless worlds who are constantly 
gazing at me. I am an object-lesson. I teach 
the value of motion, and the interchange of spirit. 
I take and I give. I love all, and all love me. I 
am immortal ! I am not derived from any other 
power, comet, sun, star, or world. I am, they are ; 
we exist and are immortal by motion and min- 
gling of essences. I am immortal by feeling. I 
sense the pulsation of every world in my orbit, 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


151 


and they feel me. Oh, senseless man, that feels 
nothing and knows nothing ! There is no life, 
there is no God, but Love. Perfect motion is per- 
fect life. The straddling motions of mankind are 
far from perfection. No wonder that death is in- 
herent in mankind, and in all things of an angular 
form. All perfect forms are spherical. The human 
brain approaches thereto ; the eye, which lighteth 
up the dark caverns of the soul and dispeleth the 
night of the mind, is a type of a perfect form. I 
do not deal in death. I bring no wars nor 
pestilence, as ignorance imagines ; but by my love 
I draw human faces upward, to gaze and learn of 
immortal, undying energy, life, and love.” 

Thus listening, Don imagined that he heard all 
this ; I say, imagined, but what do we know really 
of the imagination, its scope, depth, and powers 
It is the mother of progress, art, science, literature, 
and culture of every kind, name, or nature. Nor 
is it any objection to this truth if it is a potent 
factor in disease and diabolism ; for it is a creator 
in whatever direction its energies are directed. 
If one hears a voice that is inaudible to others, 
or sees sights that others cannot see, is it logical 
to conclude that such are not real, because, for- 
sooth, the majority^ are deaf or blind to such 
sights or sound ? No, the truly real is hidden 
from the gaze of physical eyes, and the melodies 
of Beethoven and Mozart had to be translated, 
transformed, ere this dull world could be charmed 
into higher feeling and a higher life. But who can 


152 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


say what the original must have lost in the trans- 
lation ? To ears more tuneful than ours, the mel- 
odies we imagine perfect are the merest discord. 
Compare our music with that of the African and 
the North American Indian. No, the unreal is in 
our knowledge ; the real is in the imagination, 
hidden by a curtain more or less opaque, that 
sometimes, in the rapt contemplation of objects 
or the study of mysterious problems, rolls back a 
little or lifts a corner and lets in the light as we 
can bear it . 

So Don, sitting thus, with eyes turned upward, 
gazing at the comet, entered unconsciously the 
hypnotic state (the true road out of finite limita- 
tions) and heard the voice of the stars and of 
Infinitude, which are silent only in the presence 
of doubt and unbelief. Then, drawn as by a 
magnet, he approached the newly-made grave, 
seeing nothing, but hearing much. It seemed to 
him that he was surrounded by a crowd, all 
jabbering at the same time, some addressing him 
and others speaking to each other, and the burden 
of the talk was fierce denunciation of Dr. Parker. 

‘‘He is one of us,” said a harsh, coarse voice 
close by his ear. 

“ He shall suffer ! ” squeaked another. 

“We have him ! ” shouted a chorus of voices. 

“Scatter the dust of a new-made grave at 
midnight, where his feet will touch it in the 
morning, if you want to see fun,” piped one in 
shrill tones. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


153 


I am in his mind ! ” croaked a female voice. 
‘‘I am in his stomach ! ” 

“ And I in his blood ! ” chimed in another. 

I am in his drinks ! ’’ 

I am his worm that dieth not ! ” 

‘‘And I the tire that is not quenched ! ” 

Such were the exclamations Don caught in 
the general gabble, for such a pandemonium he 
had never dreamed possible — hissing, groaning, 
spattering, gnashing of teeth, shrieking, swear- 
ing, praying, singing, shuffling of feet. And yet, 
strange as it may seem, Don was calm and un- 
moved. Indeed, he seemed to be part and parcel 
of this tumultuous gathering ; and when allusion 
was made to the scattering of dirt from a new- 
made grave, he thought of the words of the 
Master, “When ye depart out of that city or 
house, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily, I 
say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom 
and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for 
that city,” and he wondered what the dust had to 
do with it. As the thought flashed through his 
mind, the word “magic” was hoarsely whispered 
in his ear ; and a prolonged cry of the multitude, 
that dust off one’s feet being a curse, how much 
more the dust of a grave, and that the grave of a 
broken heart, a heart literally turned to a living 
curse ? All these words and ideas found an echo 
in Don’s soul, psychologized as he then was, and 
stooping down he clutched both hands full of the 
soft earth and fled from the scene. 


154 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


When the morning came there was dust in the 
doorway of Dr. Parker’s office and in his buggy. 

Long years afterwards, in alluding to this cir- 
cumstance, Don said : ‘‘Well do I remember the 
cry that followed me as I fled in the darkness from 
that cemetery — ‘ Throw dust in his eyes ! throiv 
dust in his mind ! throw dust in his soul I ’ ” 

I am of the opinion that if dust be a medium 
for conveying a curse, this world is pretty well 
cursed, for there is plenty of dust, and all men 
are dust -throwers. 


THE DOUBLE MA:N. 


155 


CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CURSE OF INA. 

The doctor opened the letter after he was 
seated in his buggy, and read the following 
words : 

“ Dr. Parker ! Devil ! Demon ! Destroyer of my 
life ! I shall be dead when you read this ; hut do not 
deceive yourself by appearances. God forgive me ! but 
I cannot find forgiveness in my heart for you ! No, I 
feel that God through my lips curses you, and has 
graciously permitted me to be the instrument of llis 
justice. Go where you will, I shall be there, to 
wither and blight all your joys. 

“ I curse you ! God curses you ! In your soul there 
shall be no rest! In the night, in the day, sleep shall 
bring no repose. Your food shall not nourish you, 
for cursed be your stomach, your bowels, your liver, 
and doubly, aye trebly, cursed that heart of yours. 
Naught but poison shall its throbs force through your 
veins ! Rest assured I will be by you at all times, to 
see that this curse shall work as effectually upon you 
as your hypnotic spells worked upon poor heartbroken 
Ina. Dog thou art, and dog shalt thou remain. 

“ Ina. 

“ P.S. — The spirit of your baby, which is, or was, 
that of an old mistress of yours, will be the poison I 
shall use in your blood. 


“ Ina.” 


156 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


I leave the reader to conjecture the feelings 
of the doctor after reading this letter. That he 
loved Ina as men of his class love, which is as the 
brute loves, is unquestionably true. There was 
no parental, no fraternal love ; for this love 
equalizes mankind. There certainly was no such 
love for her as a man, no matter how low in the 
scale of being he may be, feels for the woman 
who captivates his heart. But he had plenty of 
pride, and if he really intended to marry her it 
was to gratify his pride of possession for passion’s 
sake. 

There was evidently a vein of superstition in 
his nature, as there generally is in cowards, and 
this curse, coming immediately after the talk of 
Mr. Albee at the grave, one corroborating the 
other, must have been rather startling to him, to 
say the least. He sat in his buggy like one 
dreaming. 

strange coincidence,” he murmured, as he 
drove off. But he could not shake off the gloom 
that hung over him. Coincidences are about all 
the logic such men have in explanation of remark- 
able or mysterious events. He could not under- 
stand that future events cast a shadow upon us, 
often long before they happen. He went his 
rounds among his patients as usual, but there 
was a listlessness and absent-mindedness in his 
manner altogether foreign to him. He had lost 
his vivacity, his ready wit, his hearty good- 
nature, and merry laughter. His patients and 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


157 


friends noticed it, ascribing it to the deep grief 
they imagined he felt for the tragic death of his 
ward ; but they were far away from the true 
cause. The doctor could not get the words of 
that curse out of his mind for a moment ; they 
seemed to burn in his brain. They were words 
of fire ; they scorched, they withered, they hissed 
as live coals upon raw fiesh. He sought the com- 
rades of other days at the club, drank, told vulgar 
stories, and laughed the loudest of any ; but there 
was a constant reminder of Ina in every jest, and 
every oath he uttered. 

‘‘ I wonder if I am hypnotized,” he thought ; 
and then for the first time he remembered that 
the lady who fainted in the hall had asserted that 
she saw Ina, while her corpse was still warm, as 
natural as life. Then a morbid longing came 
over him to see this woman, and learn from 
her if she still held to the same thing. Acting 
upon the thought, he sought and obtained an 
interview with the lady, whose name I have 
forgotten. 

‘‘ Certainly ! I saw her as plainly as I see you 
this moment,” she said in answer to his query if 
she really believed she saw her ; ‘ ‘ it is no helief 
at all, sir ! What one knows, what one sees, is not 
belief sir ! you must certainly see the difference. 
Doctor, I am as cer — ” then suddenly happening 
to cast her eyes toward the door, she shrieked 
and fell to the floor. When restored to conscious- 
ness the lady reasserted her statement. ‘ ‘ Doctor, 


158 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


I saw her again, just the same as at first, only 
this time she was carrying a little bundle in 
her arms.” The doctor waited to hear no more, 
but visibly agitated left the house, saying to him- 
self : am not afraid to die, hut I am a little 

afraid that death is not the end.” 

That night the doctor was carried home from 
his club dead drunk. From this time his descent 
was rapid. He was conscious that he was on the 
road to ruin, and tried to turn his mind into other 
channels, but the undercurrent of all occupations, 
conversation, wild mirth with jovial companions, 
was the curse of Ina. The wan, dead face, with 
froth oozing from livid lips, took form in his 
mind, as does an object often seen in memory. 
This mental image grew as weeds grow, for the 
soil in his mind was rich in noxious elements, out 
of which malarial poisons take their rise. Every 
patient he saw, nay, every female form, made him 
shudderingly conscious of his poor ward, and 
of the part he had acted in the woful tragedy. 
He abandoned his practice and shut himself 
up in his rooms, seldom going out save at 
night, and even then only to go to his club 
and spend most of the night drinking. At 
first the brandy he drank induced a certain 
recklessness, an indifference or callousness, that 
was a relief to him. But after a time the in- 
toxicating influence of the liquor lost its power 
to deaden, and produced the opposite effect upon 
his mind and nervous sensibilities. Drunk, 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


159 


even to physical helplessness, his mind became 
preternaturally active, and his faculties lumi- 
nous. 

It was at such time that he first saw Ina. He 
was half sitting, half reclining in an easy-chair, 
laughing boisterously at some witty narrative 
which was being told and comically acted by the 
wit of the club, when suddenly turning his head, 
he saw her standing near him, with something 
wrapped in white in her arms. Paralyzed for a 
moment, then with a wild shriek he sprang from 
the chair and fell prostrate upon the floor. The 
influence of alcoholic spirits is similar to the in- 
fluence of disembodied spirits. In either case the 
vibrations of the brain and nerves are increased, 
and in most cases of prolonged drunkenness, ob- 
jects that are ordinarily invisible become visible. 
In all cases, the objects seen are in the sphere 
(spirit) of the individual. Snakes in the boots,” 
called delirium tremens, is no uncommon thing ; 
and habitual inebriates, old men of long experi- 
ence, have assured me that when drunk they see 
all manner of things — toads, snakes, lizards, 
dead people, even the devil himself — and hold 
conversation with them. 

The wild gyrations of the dervishes, the pow- 
wows of our North American Indians, and the 
dances of the voodoos are all for the sole pur- 
pose of throwing the blood to the head, thus 
inducing a species of intoxication, or, in other 
words, of increasing the vibrations of the brain to 


160 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


such an extent as to produce catalepsy, trance, 
clear-seeing, prophetic visions, etc. 

In the case of Dr. Parker the brandy v^as not 
alone in producing clairvoyance ; the loud laughter 
supercharged his large brain with blood and 
carbonic acid gas, till the room seemed to whirl 
like a top, and the thin veil that screens us off 
from the invisible world gave way to the excessive 
vibrations, and he saw — what ? Things that 
were already there, looking at him. The drink 
and the violent laughter had only increased his 
consciousness by opening his eyes, or rather by 
removing the film from them, for sight is the 
great avenue to the soul. The vibrations of the 
brain are to the brain what thought is to the 
mind, a stimulant, a combustion, a lamp lit in a 
dark place. Eesuscitated after a time, he glared 
around, like some frightened animal searching 
for the source of danger, at the anxious and sym- 
pathetic faces. At last his gaze became riveted 
in one direction. Intensely he gazed, then shut 
his eyes, passed his hand over his forehead, 
looked again, with eyes starting almost from their 
sockets, and sprang to his feet, shouting : 

‘‘Take her away! There she is! Take her 
away ! It is she, my dead and buried Ina ! Oh ! 
she said she would haunt me ! — and now there 
she is. Oh, don’t you see her glaring at me 
like a fiend ? ” 

In vain they assured him that there was no 
woman in the room. He looked at them with 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


161 


a puzzled expression on his face, then looking 
again in the same direction, sprang backward, 
knocking one down who SFtood behind him, and 
shrieked at the top of his voice : 

‘ ‘ Don’t think to fool me with such lies ! Keep 
her off ! don’t let her touch me ! She wants to 
drag me down to hell to keep her company ! 
Keep her off ! ” 

Meantime, strong men had seized him as he 
rushed backward, with hands outstretched, hair 
disheveled, and bloodless, livid face. Over went 
tables and chairs in the mad struggle to escape. 
Decanters and tumblers crashed upon the floor, 
and still he struggled and cried out, ^‘Take her 
away ! ” Overcome at length through utter ex- 
haustion, muttering incoherently, frothing at the 
mouth like a mad dog, he sank to the floor in an- 
other fit. In this condition he was conveyed to 
his lodgings. Expert physicians exhausted their 
skill to counteract this awful malady. But what do 
they know of insanity ? The morning found him 
in a strait- jacket, with strong guards, although 
he protested that he was as sane as any of them. 
Eefusing to take medicine, he assured them that 
his mind alone was affected by an hallucination 
which he hoped would disappear in a little time. 
The physicians thought so too, hut they insisted 
upon helping nature ” by Ailing his stomach with 
drugs. 


162 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


CHAPTER XIV. 

INA TO DON. — THE STRANGER AGAIN. 

In the morning of the day of Ina’s burial, the 
postman handed Don the following letter : 

“Dear Don: When you read this I shall be what 
people call dead, and that by my own hand. But don’t 
you believe for one moment that I cease to exist ; I shall 
be near you, and you shall see me at times. Do not 
grieve for me, dear Don ! I love you too devotedly to 
stay on earth and bring into existence a child against 
my will and contrary to my love. I could not bear 
to bring a reproach upon our love, dear Don ! And 
my helplessness in this matter could be nothing else. 
There is more power in death than in life, and I go 
that I may obtain power to haunt Dr. Parker to the 
grave, and to a just punishment for the outrage he has 
committed upon my person. It was done in hypnotic 
sleep, I know not when, but some months before we 
declared our love ; but I was totally unconscious of it 
till your love forced me from him. After I became 
conscious of contamination I could not visit you again, 
lest I might soil your pure spirit by bringing it into 
contact with mine, already tainted by the spirit of the 
doctor and his accursed progeny. If tears could wipe 
out wrong, it is all wiped out, for I have wept barrels 
of them. But I have no tears now. They will not 
flow; they are all turned to fire that is consuming my 
very vitals. One night after I became certain of my 
condition, when kept a prisoner by the doctor, I lay 
weeping on my couch ; I must have wept myself into a 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


163 


trance, for I heard a chorus of voices, male and female, 
chanting in low, measured sadness the following 
words : 

“ My soul with love is aching, 

And iny heart’s great woe is breaking. 

Like the waves on a rock-bound coast 
In starless night where winter’s ghost 
Looks on and weeps. 

“ Life’s stormy ocean is heaving, 

And on the sands the waste is leaving 
The wrecks and fanes of dear-bought love. 

Whose pleasures gone look from above 
And mock my woe. 

“ Like a lone tree I am shaking. 

And the wind my boughs are breaking 
On a desert wild, where storm and sleet 
Are weaving my winding-sheet 

In the drifting sands. 

“My heart with pain is beating. 

For the love of life, so falsely cheating. 

Hath blighted hope and joy forever. 

And left a night whose stars may never 
Shine in the void. 

“ My life’s dark caverns are waking 
With the echoes of a warm heart breaking. 

Which sounds like a mournful dirge 
Sung by winds and green salt surge. 

In old ocean’s caverns. 

“ The angry waves are knocking 
Against my frail bark rocking. 

And the pitiless rocks on the coast are nearing, 

While I am feebly my lone way steering 
To realms unknown. 

“The words were wailed out upon the silence in long 
doleful rhythm, and as they died away in the distance 


164 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


the sound was like the faint vibration of many harp- 
strings played upon by a soft breeze. Ob, how I 
longed to hold those weird sounds always in my ears! 

“ They harmonized so perfectly with my feelings that 
they seemed to have a voice, whispering soft and low, 
‘My soul with love is aching!’ Alas! Don, my own 
love thou hast. I have none for myself. An empty 
heart knows only its pain ; your dear image is 
enshrined there, but there is no light. Your love 
might save me if I would or could accept the sacrifice. 
This I cannot do. Go your way, dear love, till I rid 
the earth of this fiend. Then I will return to thee. 
Perchance the smouldering embers of our love may be 
fanned into a flame at some time in God’s infinite good- 
ness. 

“ I was so distracted before 1 heard that angelic choir 
that I could think of nothing save my lost condition, 
but these heavenly strains seemed to fill my whole 
being with the ecstasy of despair. They buoyed me 
up. I floated, and another was with me. A man, dark 
of look, whose eyes seemed like coals of fire, suddenly 
stood before me ; a man with a dark cloak wrapped 
around his form, and a slouch hat drawn down almost 
over his eyes, as if to modify his fierce look. As I 
caught his eye, he bowed low before me, saying: 

“‘Fear not, my child. The Father loveth all the 
works of His hands. For this same purpose hath He, 
who knoweth the end from the beginning, called you 
into being : to humble in the dust the proud and 
haughty scoffers ; to teach those who will not think of 
heavenly things the utter worthlessness of human effort 
when not inspired by love of the human soul divine. 
The doctor loves science ; he seized upon hypnotism 
because it gave him power over others. Hypnotism, 
guided and controlled by love, is the royal road to 
happiness, health, and heaven. But the doctor did 
not know this. He loves science, not man. He who 
loveth humanity loveth God, but the doctor believes in 
neither God nor man. It is to teach such that object- 
lessons are in the world. God is not a God of vengeance. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


165 


In mercy He instructs us for our good. Every experi- 
ence in life is a lesson and a teacher. In mercy He 
removes wrongdoers out of this world. That is why 
death is in the land. The wrongs done to thee are 
ripe. Thy cries have ascended into heaven, and have 
disturbed the repose of the angels. The whole world 
is sighing and groaning in a hypnotic sleep induced 
by the worship of gold. This worship is upheld and 
fostered by priests, aristocrats, lords, dukes, bishops, 
kings, popes, lawyers, teachers, and doctors of every 
class and kind. The eyes of the people are so tightly 
closed in this sleep that the day of judgment will 
scarce open them. The woes of earth will have stirred 
up the vengeance of the Lord, and the wrath of Love is 
about to be poured out upon the earth as it has been 
poui*ed out upon you, my poor maiden ! Weep not, but 
listen. The only forgiveness for sin must come from 
the person wronged. Hand to hand, the wronged and 
the wrongdoer must go down the vistas of eternity 
till forgiveness breaks the chain that binds them to- 
gether. At present you cannot forgive the doctor for 
this vital wrong he has done you. “Vengeance is 
mine,” saith the Lord, “ I will repay,” is merely the 
declaration of that spark of Deity enthroned in the 
human heart. Humanity calls for vengeance, but the 
Infinite calmly surveys the turmoil of human passions, 
and metes out first justice for the correction of faults, 
then mercy for the harmony of the whole. You must 
witness and be an instrument of the punishment of the 
doctor till you are filled with pity for him. Then and 
only then can the great God forgive him.’ 

“ ‘ No ! no ! never ! ’ I cried. ‘ A thousand eternities 
will fail to awaken any pity in my dead heart for that 
monster ! Where is my murdered love ? Don’t talk 
to me of pity and forgiveness ! I hate, and I’ll have 
vengeance ! ’ 

“ ‘ Certainly, daughter,’ said he; ‘that is why I am 
here — to point the way for you. You speak of eter- 
nity as if you knew all about it. Let me tell you, these 
hearts of flesh are not like hearts made spiritual by 


166 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


luminosity of mind and deeper penetration into the 
mysteries of Providence. But I will say no more of 
this. In order more effectually to wreak vengeance 
upon the doctor, you must destroy the life of your 
body. It is of no value to you any more ; in fact, it is a 
burden to you. Then again, there is more power in 
death than in life, for the dead are invisible to the liv- 
ing, and can work upon them in many unsuspected 
ways. Those who die violent deaths remain longest 
on earth. All haunted houses attest this fact, and 
demonstrate the power of spirits over themselves, to 
appear and disappear, and over ponderable matter 
also. Then I’ll tell you a secret. The unborn babe 
gestating under your heart is the spirit of a young 
girl whom the doctor seduced in his early manhood, 
and left to die of a broken heart. She loved him, 
and the attraction did not, and never does, cease at 
death. In the lapse of time earthbound spirits lose 
consciousness, and in its waning, the personal form 
slowly evaporates, disappears even from the cognizance 
of other spirits. When thus dissipated they become 
a mere vapor, an aroma, retaining, however, all the 
peculiar traits and characteristics of the life they have 
lived. In this condition they hover around those to 
whom they are attracted, to be breathed in with the 
atmosphere, to fire the blood with passion, and be re- 
incarnated, born again on earth, to appear as another 
individual. You are thus surrounded by the spirit 
of a former mistress of the doctor, which is slowly 
entering into your blood, feeding the infant you loathe. 
Spirit condensing in this manner is forming another 
body. You see, then, that here is another chain which 
holds you fast to the doctor, a chain that cannot 
easily be broken. Destroy your body, and you hold 
this spirit in subjection, preventing its reincarnation ; 
you use it, united to your own, as a force to pro- 
ject, to poison, to influence both body and mind of him 
you hate. Go then ! procure prussic acid, and take it 1 
Rest assured I will be with you ! ’ 

lie was gone, and I lay for long hours thinking of 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


167 


his words. I don’t think I have forgotten one of them, 
and I give them to you as I heard them. My resolve 
is taken ; the poison is before me. Grieve not for 
me, love I I go that I may live for you ! I will yet be 
as pui’e in spirit as in motive ; for 1 am impure merely 
from the inoculation of Dr. Parker’s spiiit. When 
I am done with him the poison will have all returned 
to him. I assure you, my love, that I have no hes- 
itancy, no fear, in taking this step. To me death is 
sweeter than life, even though it were annihilation, 
which I know it is not. 1 go that I may be free. I 
will see you often, and I pray God that I may be vis- 
ible to you. Good-bye! your own 

“ Ina Gray.” 

To undertake to describe the sensations of La 
Velle during these few days would be a vain 
task. To say the least, he had sounded the 
depths but not of human anguish. Indeed, 
he had passed beyond that. Anguish takes its rise 
from blighted affections, and the laying waste 
of cherished plans, the destruction of our hopes. 
Hence it must spring from selfishness. In his love 
for Ina he had lost self. He had expected noth- 
ing, made no plans involving future possession, 
built no hopes of future pleasure. Content with 
the present, feeling the pulsations of her love thrill 
his entire being, he thanked God, and asked no 
more. From the moment when he became satisfied 
of her death, a load was lifted from his soul, and 
heaven seemed to take possession of that uncer- 
tainty which had been killing him. 

The voice whispered to him again : ^Ht is folly 
to grieve over that which is. Every tear shed over 


168 


TBE DOUBLE MAN. 


lost treasures is a rebuke to that kind Providence 
who giveth and who taketh His own. The more 
spiritual one is, the fewer treasures will he have 
on earth, and the less he will grieve, like a child, 
over broken toys. Be calm, be patient, and 
wait.” So Don read the letter over and over 
again, with a smile on his face and a puzzled 
thought in his mind : “ The stranger again ! the 
man with the slouch hat and cloak ! Is he an evil 
spirit or is he good ? ” As he mused, suddenly the 
tolling of a church bell told him it was the day of 
Ina’s burial. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


169 


CHAPTER XV. 

INSANITY. 

Time wore on, but the doctor grew no better. 
All that science could do was of no avail. Stim- 
ulants and sedatives were of no use, for in the 
course of time his stomach retained nothing but 
water. Food, undigested, was thrown out, some- 
times even while partaking of it. His condition 
was pitiable in the extreme. Confined in a 
strait-jacket, with feet lashed to the bedposts, 
he writhed and raved at times, and then would 
fall into a lethargic state, seemingly unconscious 
of surroundings, lowly muttering to himself, 
suddenly to be followed by wild shrieks of ‘ ‘ Take 
her away ! take her away ! ” accompanied by the 
most violent efforts to free himself, during which, 
notwithstanding his bonds, two or three strong- 
men were required to hold him on the bed. The 
wildest profanity broke from his frothing lips the 
while, anon followed by piteous pleadings for 
freedom to roam in the green woods, to escape 
from his dread tormentors. For he often saw 
many others besides Ina. He said they came with 
chains and instruments of torture, often throw- 
ing dust on him, which burned as fire. As if in 


170 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


corroboration of the fact, his person was covered 
with blotches and pimples altogether unlike any 
disease known to the profession. A bath of water, 
either warm or cold, only aggravated and in- 
creased his torment. He scarcely resembled the 
man of a few months ago. Wild-eyed, haggard, 
and unkempt, bones almost protruding from the 
skin, his neck elongated like a turtle’s, his mouth 
exuding froth mingled with curses, pleadings, 
and vain attempts at prayer — such was Dr. Parker 
under the influence of Ina’s curse, or an hypnotic 
spell, alternately raving like some caged wild 
beast, or listlessly gazing with a meaningless 
stare, helpless, idiotic. 

One morning Mr. Albee called on Don and 
requested him to go and call on Dr. Parker with 
him. Don refused pointblank, saying : “His 
works have found him out ! I don’t want to meet 
the devils he has invoked by his conduct. Let 
God’s justice be done ! ” 

“Ah,” said Mr. Albee, “the Master cast out 
devils, and it is the duty and high prerogative 
of every professed Christian to do the same. But 
they say he is insane ! I don’t think he is pos- 
sessed by devils at all ; let us go and see.” 

“No,” said Don, “ I will not go. Besides, you 
have no way of knowing except by his acts.” 

“ There you mistake,” said Mr. Albee ; “if there 
are devils, then I can see them.” 

“Well, Mr. Albee, if you really wish to visit 
him, why not get the Catholic priest. Father 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


171 


O’Brien, to go with you ? He knows how to 
exorcise evil spirits.” 

Mr. Albee, acting upon this suggestion, per- 
suaded Father O’Brien to accompany him. They 
found the doctor in one of his lucid intervals. 
He fixed his eyes upon the aged priest, and almost 
instantly his features were distorted beyond 
recognition ; his eyes fairly blazed with hatred. 

^ ^ Why do you come here ? reprobate ! pre- 
tender of holiness ! ” he almost shrieked. Away 
with you ! you refused to offer up a prayer for 
poor misguided Ina, or to ask God to rest her soul 
in peace ! It is you who have left her soul on 
earth to torment me ! Away with you ! ” And 
he made a spring as if to seize the priest, for- 
getting that he was bound. His feet being fast 
to the bedposts, prevented his getting far, but his 
body twisted itself fairly off the bed. He was 
caught by his attendants and placed back in posi- 
tion, where he was held for a few moments, 
gnashing his teeth and roaring like a demon. As 
soon as he was released he sprang upright in the 
bed, where his body was suspended horizontally, 
albeit his hands were lashed down by the strait- 
jacket. Just then the physician entered, and 
perceiving the condition of things, proceeded to 
administer a powerful opiate — a difficult task, for 
his teeth were set like a vice, his lips livid 
and frothy. It was found impossible to force the 
medicine down his throat, and hypodermic injec- 
tion was resorted to. With a gasp his mouth 


172 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


opened, and he groaned, ‘ ‘ Oh, God ! they are 
throwing dust into my blood ! Oh, Ina ! you 
are terribly avenged ! ” and sank down helpless 
as a child. 

Meantime Father O’Brien was on his knees, 
holding a crucifix in one hand, fumbling his 
beads with the other, muttering an unintelligible 
jargon in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, which possibly 
God might understand, but which no one present 
could. Mr. Albee was walking with rapid strides 
up and down the room, muttering, Gibberish ! 
gibberish ! ” He paused in front of the physician, 
as soon as quiet was restored, and asked : 

‘ ‘ Sir, what manner of disease is this ? ” 
Insanity, sir ! A commission will examine 
him to-morrow, and I hope he will be removed to 
the insane asylum, where he ought to have been 
some time ago.” 

‘^Please tell me, doctor, what is insanity ?” 

^Ht is a disease of the mind.” 

Ah ! What causes it ?” 

I frankly admit that I am unable to answer 
that question. There are so mau}^ producing 
causes that a specific cause for an}^ particular 
case, involving so many symptoms, is difficult to 
ascertain.” 

^‘Are not the causes threefold ; i. e. physical, 
natural, and spiritual ? ” 

Undoubtedly the two first-named may be the 
prime causes of insanity, but I know nothing of 
spiritual causes.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


173 


Here Father O’Brien, having finished counting 
his beads and Latin incantation, crossed himself 
and joined in the conversation by saying : 

“You say you know nothing of spiritual 
causes ! Is not the case of Nebuchadnezzar to the 
point ? — eating grass with the beasts of the field ! 
If such should happen nowadays would he not be 
declared insane by you professional men ? And 
the cause of it — ‘ a voice fell from heaven saying.’ 
And yet you say you know nothing of spiritual 
causes ! ” 

“Oh, so far as the Bible is concerned I helieve 
it, but in the practice of medicine we look to 
facts for our knowledge of causes, and not to 
hearsay or belief. I am satisfied that most of the 
causes of mental aberration may he traced to 
physical disturbance, or the violation of laws 
appertaining to the physical system.” 

“You certainly ignore the sayings of the New 
Testament there,” said Mr. Albee, “for exactly 
such cases as this before us are there said to he 
the works of devils, and one considerable part of 
the Saviour’s work was the casting out of devils. 
And you. Father O’Brien, as the representative of 
the Saviour, are commissioned and commanded to 
raise the dead and cast out devils in His name.” 

The holy father crossed himself and began to 
tell his beads, while Mr. Albee continued : “And 
lest you have any doubt about it being the work 
of devils, let me describe what I see herewith this 
man. But before doing so, let me cite to you the 


174 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


case of Mr. Phelps, who, as you will remember, 
doctor, was bitten by a rabid dog last year, and 
died of a disease you name hydrophobia. Well, 
doctor, I watched that case from the beginning 
to the end, and the same thing is going on here. 
What I saw in that case I see in this. Tou 
recognize that some diseases are contagious, do 
you not, doctor ? ” 

‘ ^ Most certainly I do. ” 

‘‘Allow me, then, to say, contagion is simply 
the growth or expansion of spirit. Smallpox is 
only a physical disease, but it is contagious 
because the spirit of it is so subtile, easy of prop- 
agation, and of rapid growth. In other words, 
so easy of division, subdivision, and expansion. It 
is like some weeds, whose seeds are wafted far and 
wide by the winds, taking root wherever they 
strike in congenial soil. It is the spirit in the 
seed that causes development, and the spirit 
causes all growth by division, expansion. In the 
case of Mr. Phelps I had a great desire to see the 
growth of the poison, and falling into trance with 
eyes wide open and all my mental faculties in 
normal condition, I saw his body transparent, 
observed the combustion in the blood caused by 
the introduction of air in breathing, and noted 
the changes in his blood as the poison developed 
itself, until the dog spirit became so strong that 
the human spirit was crowded out, all unconscious, 
while the consciousness became that of the dog, 
so that he whined, growled, barked, and hit like 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


175 


a dog. Now that virus was inoculated into him 
by the bite of a dog, but the disease was a dis- 
ease of the spirit, for the active principle of all 
things is spirit, and when spirit meets spirit by 
inoculation or otherwise, the grosser drives out 
the finer by combining with that like itself. 
Now an abrasion or wound of the mind may be 
effected by a word, a shock, or excitement of any 
kind. Evil spirits, taking advantage of such cir- 
cumstances, infuse their poison into the abrasion 
of the mind and grow gradually therein, poison- 
ing first thought, imagination, and feeling ; grad- 
ually changing every action of blood, till at last 
the rabid spirit enters, usurping all the functions 
of the body, destroying or paralyzing memory, 
dethroning reason, and taking conscious possession 
of the temple of God, wherein man dwells through 
reason, justice, and love. That there are mon- 
strous spirits in existence is demonstrated by the 
fact of their being embodied in reptiles, monsters 
of the deep, venomous worms and insects, deadly 
in influence, and antagonistic to man in every 
sense of the word. The boundary between dif- 
erent grades of spirits is not sharply defined and 
fixed, but one blends into another so gradually that 
the transition is not perceptible. It is only by 
strong contrast that distinctions are established. 
A poisonous substratum of spirit, termed evil, 
ignorance, vice,, etc., underlies that grade of 
spirit which we term human, and the spray of its 
tempest-tossed waves often are caught up with 


176 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


the ascending vapors of this ocean of evil, and 
drawn into a vortex of what we term good. 
There ferment diseases as poisonous and fatal as 
hydrophobia. Whence come wars, pestilence, 
and famine ? Whence come revolutions that 
destroy peaceful homes, beautiful cities, and 
opulent governments ? I’ answer, by an abrasion 
of the public mind, of the so-called lower strata 
of spirit. By agitation, excitement, wrongs, pov- 
erty, this ocean of evil — upon the bosom of which 
civilization floats like a scum — is agitated, torn, 
rent, storm- tossed. Its exhalations are inoculated 
into the human spirit, and we have all these 
phases of insanity in the public mass, as we have 
it in this poor form before us. There is public as 
well as private insanity, more properly obsession. 
And this substratum, upon which all worlds are 
cushioned, personifles itself in all things repug- 
nant to true humanity. These personalities are 
either long-lived or ephemeral, depending upon 
the public will. Such are soulless corporations, 
irresponsible governments, dogmatic priestcraft, 
and all things that antagonize freedom of choice 
and act. These things, being the creations of 
man’s will, are totally void of sympathy and 
conscience — soulless. They are obsessing powers, 
devils, entering into the minds of mankind by 
education to usurp all clear sight and reason, 
perverting all love. The banking system, a crea- 
ture of the law, has obsessed the public mind to 
that extent that God is dethroned in the human 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


177 


heart, and gold has taken His place. They con- 
tinue to instill the poison into the body politic, 
through the wound made by greed. This is 
indeed the hydrophobic age.” 

After a pause Mr. Albee continued : 

The same thing is as true of an individual, a 
company, a class, as of the mass or aggregate. 
One’s desires may he — in fact, are — personified 
according to the laws of the will, and such per- 
sonality, charged with the virus of insanity, pro- 
jected upon an individual will, may produce the 
same or a similar effect as the bite of a rabid dog, 
only in such case the bite is in the mind instead of 
in the flesh. The mind must first be bitten. It 
is done by agitation, excitement, grief, religious 
enthusiasm, or anything that disturbs its equa- 
nimity. In the case before us Ina committed 
suicide with vengeance in her heart. Dr. Parker 
was aware of her animosity, and the pangs of a 
guilty conscience lacerated his guilty soul. The 
will of Ina has projected here a demon, who 
stands over him now. I see him — a head bris- 
tling with serpents ; and such a head ! If you 
could see it as I see it you could understand what 
I now try to explain to you. His body is a com- 
pound of the reptile and the mammal. The lower 
part is that of a lizard with scales and monstrous 
claws. Its body is that of a turtle elongated, and 
covered with spots like a leopard. The neck and 
face are like a man’s with four eyes, a nose like 
a hog’s, with hair bristling with serpents which 

12 


178 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


spit venom into that poor mortal lying like one 
dead before you. The four eyes emit rays, red, 
yellow, blue, and dead black. He sits upon the 
breast of your patient, doctor, and his hands, like 
an eagle’s claws, are fixed in his fiesh. Can you 
not cast him out?” cried Mr. Albee, turning 
frantically to Father O’Brien. 

Mr. Albee was a sight worth beholding at that 
moment. His eyes were upturned, and a look of 
such intense horror was in his face that nothing 
but dogmatic intolerance and agnostic self- 
sufficiency could have been unimpressed with the 
truth of what he described. 

Even as it was, it took some moments for the 
holy father to shake off the spell, mutter a prayer, 
and cross himself before replying, Ah, my son ! 
the age of miracles has passed ; let us pray ! ” and 
suiting the action to the word he fell upon his 
knees and actually prayed in English, without 
counting his beads. 

But the physician, although impressed by the 
fervor and evident honesty of the speaker, felt 
Dr. Parker’s pulse, and would have looked at 
his tongue if it had been possible, muttering to 
himself : 

“It may all be true, but I don’t know ; I*il 
stick to science after all. Diseases are physical, 
or at least spring from physical causes.” 

But Mr. Albee was too much carried away by 
what he saw and the ideas he had enunciated, 
and being a devout Christian withal he approached 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


179 


the bed, saying, as he laid his hands upon the 
form before him : Peace, be still ! In the name 
of ” 

But he never finished that sentence, for a shock 
as of lightning felled him to the floor. 

In the morning the commission in lunacy found 
Dr. Parker dead. 


180 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTER XVL 
A monster’s birth in spirit. 

When Mr. Albee left on his visit to Dr. Parker, 
Don locked his door and entered his cabinet. 
Many changes had been made in its arrange- 
ment since the reader and I entered it. On the 
floor, enclosing the tripod, was a huge circle 
painted in the three primary colors, red, yellow, 
and blue, and in regular spaces were painted the 
twelve signs of the Zodiac, as in a horoscope. 
The ruby light is exchanged for one of a dull 
yellow, and there are many magic mirrors now, 
instead of one. They are of all colors, black, 
white, yellow, red, blue, and compound tints, some 
made of baked clay, of glass, of paper, cloth, gold 
leaf, etc. This day, however, Don arranged before 
him a small box, closed on the four sides, with a 
light within shining through a small round hole 
one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, shaded by a 
piece of orange paper. Ever since Ina’s burial 
Don had been uneasy in his mind ; the old sadness 
and unrest returned with redoubled force. His 
sleep is troubled and unrefreshing. His dreams 
are of monsters, who seem to clutch at him in a 
friendly way, apparently deriving strength and 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


181 


satisfaction from coiit^ict with him. Try as he 
will, he cannot banish the consciousness from 
his mind, that somehow, in some unaccountable 
manner, Ina’s cause was his own. 

Lying awake nights, he felt strange influences, 
like something cupping different parts of his 
person, a drawing, sucking sensation, which left 
him each day weaker and weaker, accompanied 
by a frantic desire to commit suicide. All the 
time he sensed weird, goblin-like influences — a 
rustling, a whispering, stealthy steps, pushings, 
and caresses that greatly disturbed him. 

In vain he walked upon the bluffs, gazing at the 
scenes that Ina had loved, or sat musing upon the 
old log for hours, hoping to get a glimpse of her 
dear face. All in vain ; no Ina came. Even the 
inner voice ceased its counsel, and the peaceful 
ecstatic feeling he loved so well, which came over 
him at Ina’s presence, and presaged the presence 
of his second self, came no more. 

In vain he sat for hours, asking questions of 
his mirror. Failing to get answers, he busied 
himself making new ones, imagining that they 
lost their potency by use or that different colors 
were necessary to conform to his own changing 
conditions. It was all in vain. At last the 
thought struck him to make and use the star 
mirror,” considered the most potent of all. To 
this end he constructed the box referred to. 

This morning he is feeling uncommonly bitter 
toward Dr. Parker. Mr. Albee’s request that he 


182 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


should accompany him on his visit seemed to 
kindle hell fires within him. He could see noth- 
ing in Dr. Parker but an embodiment of all 
that is infernal. No excuses for his acts 
impressed his mind. He is the cause of all 
my misery,” sighed Don; ‘H’ll destroy every 
vestige of him,” said he, grinding his teeth. 
And suiting the action to the word, he looked 
around the studio for something to remind him of 
the doctor, hut saw nothing save Ina’s portrait 
turned face to the wall. Seizing upon it, with 
eyes like a basilisk, he thought to smash it over 
a chair ; but his eyes caught hers, as he had 
painted them in her innocence and purity, with 
all the girlish mischief and trust looking at 
him, transformed now into something magical, 
heavenly. No wonder the hard look left his own 
face as he gazed at hers ! No wonder he stag- 
gered as he set the frame against the wall, and 
gazed spellbound at the transformation ! No 
wonder he was softened till the tears rolled down 
his cheeks ! 

The paroxysm of weeping soon passed away, 
and taking the picture reverently in his hands, 
he carefully hung it in his cabinet behind ‘^the 
star mirror,” so as to face himself when gazing. 
Then he wrote these words on his slate, which he 
hung underneath the picture : Oh, thou infinite 
spirit ! Thou who art all that is ! — Thou who art 
the prayer, and the answer thereof ! — show me, 
this hour, the workings of a curse ! Let me see 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


183 


its potency, its effects, and the means of its oper- 
ation ! Oh, give me an object-lesson ! Thou 
that art now and evermore ! ” and closing the 
door he sat on the tripod gazing into the fiery 
eye that looked out of the box at him. He es- 
sayed to get his mind into the meditative channel 
in which heretofore he had found calmness, 
tranquillity, Samadhi,” hut his mind would not 
concentrate. There was no focus to his thoughts 
upon anything hut Dr. Parker, and these were 
agitating rather than tranquilizing. His feel- 
ings grew more and more bitter. He essayed to 
call up thoughts of love, and tried to see Ina’s face 
as he had seen it in the picture. Vain task ! The 
face came, hut it was distorted with a demoniac 
look of vengeance ; thoughts of love mingled so 
with thoughts of wrong done to his love that 
there could be no calmness. 

At sight of her face, gradually there stole into 
his consciousness sounds of whisperings, which, 
growing louder and louder, became an indistinct 
murmur of voices, incoherent, unintelligible. 
Then he became conscious of feeling cold, as if 
a cold wave of air was striking on his back, A 
feeling of horror crept into his mind as some- 
thing cold and slimy crept up from his feet. On 
it came, without form, but tangible, creeping : 
now it is on his stomach, now on his chest. He 
tries to cry out, hut his voice is unheard ; he tries 
to leap from the tripod, but is powerless to move ; 
while slowly — oh, so slowly ! — the thing approaches 


184 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


his throat. He feels the blood pressing behind 
his eyes, his head is full, the thing has clasped 
his throat, and he loses consciousness with the 
thought in his mind, “ This is death.” But not 
for long was he dead. 

Suddenly he awoke, sensing an awfully dis- 
agreeable stench. Where am I ? ” he gasped as 
he opened his eyes in dense darkness ; but no 
answer came. Gradually his eyes adjusted them- 
selves to his surroundings, and he saw dimly, in 
a foggy atmosphere, a large room, the entire 
floor of an old building on the banks of the river, 
formerly used as a tobacco factory, but long since 
unoccupied, which he had visited many times. 
He saw, I say, dimly, an immense crowd of people. 
The stench was almost unbearable, but he became 
used to that, and began to take an interest in 
what was being done there. Gradually he be- 
came aware that the building was filled with a 
crowd, and the light grew stronger in the center 
of that motley crowd. Making his way, by much 
pushing, through the throng, whose touch as he 
passed left a cold, slimy sensation, nearer to the 
light, he found that it arose from a smouldering 
Are which naked men and women were fanning 
and feeding with some objects which he could not 
discern. Upon a raised platform, overlooking the 
strange performance, sat Don’s old-time friend — 
‘Hhe stranger ” — he with the slouched hat and 
dark cloak ; while by his side, to Don’s inexpres- 
sible grief and horror, stood the object of his love. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


185 


the beautiful Ina, no longer sparkling with mirth 
and joyous good nature, but with set features, 
intense look, and glare as of some wild beast. 
Her hair, tangled in masses, fell on her shoulders, 
writhing and twisting together in huge clusters, 
only to unfold and curl again, ceaselessly, like a 
nest of serpents. All around was a sea of heads, 
of all tribes and nationalities on the face of the 
globe, and of tribes and nationalities long since 
extinct. The ancients were there in quaint cos- 
tumes or none at all, and representatives of every 
sect and religion that have ever existed. 

As Don gazed upon this strange gathering the 
old tobacco factory seemed to enlarge itself. It 
became immense, till at last it had no limits at 
all that he could perceive. The whole expanse 
was filled by this heterogeneous mass of gibber- 
ing, malicious, unforgiving, revengeful beings. 
They marched with banners ; they shouted and 
they sang ; they gathered in knots and crowds 
as if listening to some one speaking. Some were 
naked, while most of them were clad in various 
costumes. A continual roar of voices, like the 
wind among trees, confused and mingled voices 
and dialects, merged into unintelligibility, till 
Don despaired of learning anything touching the 
object of this meeting, and turned his eyes upon 
the center, where the fire burned more and more 
brightly, as it was fed by the naked men and 
women. Pushing his way nearer he became 
aware that there was a continual passing from 


186 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


the niultitucle, of objects which were cast into 
the fire. Looking closely, he saw that they cast 
in living reptiles, lizards, tarantulas, centipedes, 
toads, and all deadly things, each nation or tribe 
contributing those things which they (considered 
most deadly, loathsome, and offensive. It was a 
spiritual concentration of evil. 

As the strangeness of the scene familiarized 
itself to the mind of Don, his perceptions cleared, 
his intuitions began to teach him, and he awoke 
to the startling fact that he was a spirit among 
spirits, and was attending a conclave of the 
dead, representing all ages, climes, races, tribes, 
nationalities, and sects. He became correspond- 
ingly intent, trying to ascertain the object of this 
meeting. Suddenly he of the cloak raised a 
wand. The multitude became silent in a moment, 
and in a loud voice he said : 

The material of the altar is complete; now 
for the sacrifice ! Let nothing be offered except 
such things as are an abomination to the Lord.” 
‘‘ Heretics are such,” shouted a Catholic Bishop. 
“ The authors of the inquisition are an abomi- 
nation to the Lord ! ” shouted the ghost of Martin 
Luther. 

Allah be praised ! ” cried a Mahomedan,” cast 
in all dogs of Christians ! ” 

Shout upon shout arose until the whole heavens 
echoed and roared with mutual denunciations. 
Sect cursed sect, nation cursed nation, individuals 
cursed each other, till it was found there was no 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


187 


unison, and the meeting would break up in a row. 
Again the wand commanded silence. Already 
each creed or sect was massing its hosts and dis- 
playing its banners, getting ready to seize upon 
all others as an abomination, fit only for the 
sacrifice. 

“ Hush ! ” said the commander ; the universal 
sentiment of mankind is the voice of the Lord ! 
There is one thing universally execrated among 
men. It is a liar ! ” 

^ ‘ Bring him forth ! Who is he ? ” queried a 
little man with a lantern in his hand. “Cath- 
olics ! Protestants ! Heathen ! All of you ! 
I have been vainly searching, night and day, 
with this lantern, for an honest man these hun- 
dreds of years ! Cast all in ! they are only fit food 
for the gods, and I doubt very much if it prove a 
palatable dish. If liars are an abomination to 
the Lord, and He wants such for a sacrifice, ye 
need not search for one ; take any, or all.” 

Then stepped forth a Buddhist Eahab and said : 
“If the universal sentiment of mankind is the 
voice of the Lord, there can be no Lord, because 
there is no universal sentiment. The sentiment 
of one age is not that of another, nor is the sen- 
timent of one nation that of another. The same 
thing is true of sects, classes, and individuals. If 
there is any Lord, who shall speak for Him ? who 
shall declare what sentiments are an abomination 
to Him?” 

“I declare the counsel of God,” cried a man, 


188 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


clad in long robes of black, holding a crucifix 
aloft, with a mitre on his head, I declare ! ” 

Down with the priest, the abomination of the 
Lord ! A hypocrite ! a blasphemer ! a pretender 
of holiness ! ” roared the crowd as with one 
voice. 

A great tumult followed, of rushing, strug- 
gling, knocking down, tumbling in heaps, with 
shouts and yells, groans and curses, mingled 
with prayers ; while Don, fearing for his own 
safety, began to look around for a place of exit. 

In the midst of this pandemonium up went the 
wand again, and all was hushed in a moment. 
Then spake he of the cloak : 

We have not met to philosophize nor to 
abuse each other, but to carry out the will of 
that universal Providence we all worship. And 
we all agree that He wishes vengeance taken 
upon the wicked. We know this, for every 
human heart feels glad when justice is done to 
the wrongdoer, and the heart echoes the voice of 
the Lord. Now we are called upon to be God’s 
instrument of vengeance in this particular case. 
The universal sentiment, alike of savage and of 
civilized man (if, indeed, there are any truly civ- 
ilized), is that rape is the most execrable crime 
which can be committed. And now we are to 
punish a crime that exceeds it as the expanse of 
heaven exceeds the small earth. Dr. Parker has 
committed a crime unknown in the annals of 
crime. His devilish ingenuity hath extracted 


rilE DOUBLE MAN. 


189 


the devil’s power of control over mortals from 
the secret laboratories of hell, and, lacking even 
the pity of the damned, hath essayed to perpet- 
uate this crime by calling from the darkest crypts 
of the abyss a spirit of whom the devil himself 
is ashamed, and infusing it into this pure virgin 
of heaven while in an hypnotic sleep, making it 
possible for this loathsome spirit to be born again 
among men, again to have a hold on heaven by 
reason of this virgin through the love of the ex- 
pectant mother. But this has been partly thwarted 
by Ina’s taking a bold leap from earth to your 
midst, asking for the help of God to punish this 
wretch, by taking from him all that hath been 
given to him — his spirit, his intelligence, his will, 
his very soul, if such be possible. The curse of 
Ina is even now destroying the life of his body, 
but it will take the united curses of the vast con- 
course of the spirit world to totally eradicate his 
spirit from the universe, and thus put an end to 
the growth of this prostitution of the powers of 
heaven, this hypnotic crime. The monster that 
Ina’s curse has invoked is ephemeral, i. e., it de- 
pends wholly for its power upon her will ; but the 
female heart is full of pity, and in the lapse of 
the ages, at sight of his sufferings, she is liable 
to forgive him the wrong he has done. Then 
this monster of her volition will die ; Dr. Parker 
will be born again among men, with his soul still 
reeking with the filth of unexpiated crime, again 
to multiply himself and perpetuate crime, till 


190 • the double iMAN. 

there shall be no good left ! The altar of sacri- 
fice is complete ! Bring forth thy unwelcome, 
undesired, unloved, unborn baby, thou daughter 
of heaven ! sweet sinless Ina ! It is a fit sacri- 
fice, not to appease the wrath of God, but to in- 
flame it — an abomination, a stench in the nostrils 
of the Lord ! Poor little lifeless lump of clay,” 
he exclaimed, stretching out his open hands over 
it and looking up to heaven, “we realize that 
thou art only a nucleus of attraction around which 
that monstrous spirit hovers ! We send thee 
back to him who called thee from the abyss ! we 
send thee back through this vortex of fire, tinc- 
tured with the anathema of all lovers of order, 
love, and decency, praying, dear Father, that 
this curse may live till thy vengeance be satis- 
fied ! ” 

He bowed his head, and taking the little bundle 
from Ina’s arms, stepped from the platform 
and cast it into the flames. A spluttering, a 
hissing, and the flames lowered themselves till 
darkness obscured the scene, when a voice again 
rang out like a trumpet : “Let the priesthood 
of the fire organize.” In the course of a few 
minutes the flames again burst forth, disclosing a 
strange, weird spectacle. A circle of twenty-one, 
men and women, totally naked, of many nations, 
climes, and times, had formed around the fire, and 
holding each other by the hands, were marching 
slowly around to the left, chanting, in doleful, 
long-drawn strains, some not unmusical, the wild 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


191 


barbaric words. The flames shot higher, the 
circle quickend its movements, the drums beat, 
and another circle formed outside the first one, 
which revolved to the right. Faster and faster 
they whirled, till, letting go of hands, each one of 
the inner circle struck into a dance, whirling, 
leaping, and bounding like a top, to the left ; 
while the outer circle did the same to the right — 
a wheel within a wheel, revolving in different 
directions. Drums beat outside, and the mul- 
titude sang, shouted, roared, and danced, all in 
perfect time, though in such apparent disorder 
and confusion. A perfect pandemonium ; and yet 
a certain harmony breathed through all, intox- 
icating, alluring, till Don, catching the general 
feeling, felt like joining in the mad revelry. 
Faster and faster revolved the circles. Wilder 
became the shouts and cries, while the gestures, 
contortions of bodies, the violent swaying of 
heads from shoulder to shoulder, the frantic leap- 
ing increased as the flames rose higher and 
higher. Froth oozed from gasping mouths ; 
tongues lolled out blood-red. A translucent 
yellowish mist seemed gradually to envelop the 
dancers and move in circles with them. Don 
noticed that this yellow mist issued from the 
bodies of the dancers, and was attracted to the 
fire. This mist increased in density, till the 
dancers were half obscured. They seemed then, 
to Don, like demons dancing in a flame. 

At last, one by one, those of the inner circle 


192 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


dropped down and lay like the dead, while those 
in motion passed over them as if there were no 
obstacles in the way. At last the inner circle all 
lay prone upon the ground. In some unaccount- 
able manner they had, unperceived by Don, 
arranged themselves with their heads pointing 
towards the fire ; but the outer circle increased 
the rapidity of its motions. Then there began 
an agitation in the fire. It swelled up as a 
bubble, and bursting at the top, black smoke 
issued therefrom like a volcano. But it was 
heavy, and rolling down over the flames, was 
reabsorbed at the base, accompanied by a hoarse 
roar like the waves of the ocean as they break 
upon the shore. G-radually the fire decreased in 
size and brilliancy, till it was like twilight, in 
which semi-obscurity the burning pile seemed to 
open in the midst, as if cleft from the top, show- 
ing some dark object struggling amidst the 
flickering flames. It grows stronger ; it assumes 
shape ; it lashes the fire as a sea-monster does 
the ocean ; fire-sparks fly from it in streams. It 
crawls out and goes, like a serpent, thrice around 
the fire, slowly turning an indescribable face 
towards the people as it goes. Crawling, serpent- 
like, it had no legs, a body like an alligator, 
with scales of a dark color on one side and orange 
on the other ; its body ended abruptly, the 
caudal extremity terminating like that of a craw- 
fish, while a head, somewhat human-like, pro- 
jected, without the appearance of a neck, from the 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


193 


other end. The eyes, small and fierce, stood 
wide apart, projecting as if choked out. A huge 
snout took the place of a nose, with wide, dis- 
tended nostrils ; and the mouth opened, blood-red, 
lipless, from ear to ear, without chin or lower 
jaw. Eaising itself on its tail, it shook itself out 
straight like a column full ten feet high, without 
a sign of a limb. Then the skin opened, like 
fiaps covering pockets, and limbs projected there- 
from, not unlike a man’s in shape, but termi- 
nating in huge claws or talons. Stretching out 
its arms, it disclosed wings like those of a bat, 
extending from its hips to its hands. Snorting 
like a porpoise, it strolled around the fire a few 
times, then walked deliberately through it, lash- 
ing it with its tail, and stamping it till the fire 
died out and left a soft phosphorescent glow 
illuminating the room like pale moonlight. 
Every vestige of the fire had disappeared, but 
the inner circle lay there still, while the outer 
circle, having long since ceased moving, stood 
clasping each other’s hands, like an impassable 
barrier. 

The monster, as if in great wrath, with its 
tail lashed the earth, which it dug up with its 
claws, vomiting fire and smoke at the little 
circle. It bellowed in an awful voice, but all 
in vain. Its rage came back upon it : the fire 
from its mouth, the smoke from its nostrils, 
recoiled from contact with the circle. Even the 
lightning-like sweep of its claws and tail could 

13 


194 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


not touch one of the sleepers who surrounded 
it. They were like a wall of adamant. 

All at once a trumpet sounded, and a voice 
proclaimed : 

‘‘ Dr. Parker is dead ! he comes ! prepare for 
the judgment ! ” 

A dead silence prevailed. Even the monster 
stood in rapt attention. A dark speck appeared 
in the circle, surrounded by a small halo of silvery 
white. 

‘‘It is his soul!” announced the trumpet. 
“Now behold how it clothes itself with a 
form ! ” 

Gradually the white vapor increased in size 
and arranged itself in form, darkening and be- 
coming more dense as the outline became visible. 
Shortly a human form was seen stretched upon 
a couch, in a strait- jacket, with feet lashed to the 
bedposts. It was Dr. Parker just as he was at 
his death. 

Then arose the master of ceremonies — he 
of the cloak — and said, stretching forth the 
wand : 

“There, lying all unconscious before you, 
Apollyon, is your charge. You will take from 
him all that the great God hath given him, for 
he hath only abused the gifts, turning them into 
false channels. For the sake of knowledge he 
hath destroyed the happiness of others. To build 
up a fortune for himself he hath robbed the poor. 
Believing not in God, nor in the indestructibility 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


195 


of human life, he hath taken upon himself to 
stand in the place of God Almighty in controlling 
that freedom of the will and of choice and action 
vouchsafed to every mortal on earth, by means of 
which only is heaven attainable. Thus hath he 
set himself at variance with the purposes of God 
in order to aggrandize himself or to experience 
a momentary pleasure. Of all the gifts Provi- 
dence hath bestowed upon him there is none left 
worth saving. He hath not improved upon his 
intelligence by using it for the benefit of others, 
for self hath been the underlying motive of every 
act. Had he improved upon his ten talents he 
would have discovered a soul in himself and 
others, and thus have found out God. Love is 
immortal, if he had any of it ; but there is noth- 
ing left of him but brute instinct. In annihila- 
tion he believed ; let the individuality known as 
Dr. Parker cease to be ! It will take long ages 
of slow disintegration before he will get down 
to the base from whence he came ! Dog he was, 
let him he dog again ! As for you, Apollyon, you 
are as eternal as human hatred of evil. So long 
as one human heart harbors hate for the wrong- 
doer shalt thou exist, for thou art the concen- 
trated wrath of all time, a product of man’s 
anger ; void of pity, conscience, and soul. Hate, 
animated by a modicum of moral sentiment, 
monster of the infernal regions of man’s incom- 
prehensible soul, away ! ” 

While this address had been going on Dr. 


196 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Parker had regained consciousness. He did not 
know he was dead. He seemed surprised at the 
strange faces crowded around, and raising himself, 
asked for the doctor, whereupon Apollyon stepped 
from the crowd with his hideous mouth wide 
open, looking as if his head were half cut in two. 
At the same time that his eye fell upon Apollyon, 
In a came from the crowd, whereupon he 
yelled, 

Take her away ! she is dead ! Why does she 
torment me so ? take her away ! Oh, doctor, loose 
these bonds ! I am as well as anyone ! give me 
my freedom ! ” 

Ina immediately set him free. Leaping like a 
tiger from the couch, he struck like a madman 
to the right and left, getting away from Ina as 
fast as he could. But Apollyon with a fearful 
roar seized him by the neck, and holding him up, 
shook him till he was as limp as a rag, then 
dropped him on the ground, saying in an un- 
earthly voice, 

“ Now, dog, salute your mistress !” 

The doctor raised himself upon all-fours and 
went whining to Ina, fawning around her like a 
dog licking her feet. She, stooping, clasped a 
chain about his neck and placed the end there- 
of in the hand of Apollyon. 

‘‘Now God have mercy, when we have none ! 
Go ! ” cried a loud voice. 

A roar ! a crash ! as if all the thunderbolts of 
heaven had been let loose. The old tobacco fac- 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


197 


tory groaned, shook, trembled, reeled like a 
drunken man. A flash of lurid lightning illu- 
mined the place for a moment, during which Don 
saw the building falling upon him and the flying 
crowd. Then he knew no more. 


198 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTEE XVII. 

DOUBLE AGAIN. 

Passing down the street early the next morn- 
ing, on turning a corner I came pat ” upon Don 
La Velle. 

Why, Don, where away so early ? ” I ‘asked, 
as we clasped hands. 

I might retort in kind, if I were at all curious 
about your doings,” he replied ; but if you wish 
to know, IVe only been down to view the ruins 
of the old tobacco factory. It has blown down, 
though perhaps you don’t know ” 

‘ ‘ Oh, but how did you know, my friend ? 
Perhaps I am upon the same errand. You seem 
to insinuate that you have superior means of 
gaining information.” 

“Not superior to yours, if you had been there 
as I was,” he replied, with a shrug of the shoul- 
ders. 

“You there ! How did it happen that you were 
out such a night ? Look at the ruins along the 
river, the old fish market blown all to pieces, the 
wharf-boat high up on the bank, trees uprooted, 
and the steeple of St. Margarette lying in the 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


199 


street ! It was a fearful night ! How did you 
happen to he out, Don ? ” 

‘'Oh, come, and I’ll show you,” said Don ; and 
laying his hand on my arm he turned me around, 
and strode along at a rapid rate. He usually 
walked leisurely, but now he seemed in a hurry. 
We said nothing ; in fact, he gave me no time to 
talk ; it was as much as I wanted to do to keep 
pace with him. 

We soon arrived at the studio, and up the 
stairs Don went, two or three at a stride, while 
I came slowly panting after. Arrived at the 
landing, he began fumbling in his pocket for the 
key. “ Confound the fellow,” he muttered, “ he 
has locked me out ! ” As I was opening my lips 
to ask what he meant, the door flew open and 
Don was in the room holding it open for me to 
enter, with a broad grin on his face. However 
much I was astonished, he seemed not to notice 
it, but immediately threw open the blinds and let 
in the first rays of the rising sun. They streamed 
across the floor, like a bloody streak, towards the 
half-opened door of the cabinet, to which Don 
walked, muttering to himself, “I thought I shut 
the door when I came out.” Judge of my aston- 
ishment, when, pushing the door wide open, he 
disclosed another Don sitting motionless on the 
tripod, staring with unconscious eyes at the yellow 
light in the star mirror, while a stray beam of 
the sunlight kissed his pallid cheek with a lurid 
luster. 


200 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


I was in a manner prepared for such a mani- 
festation, having witnessed it before, but being 
of a skeptical turn of mind, had half reasoned it 
away by calling it an optical illusion ; so when I 
saw the two together again, I thought to myself. 

Another optical illusion.” How prone we are 
to catch at straws,” like a drowning man! 
How we do love to explain away the supernat- 
ural I What flimsy excuses or explanations 
satisfy this wonderful egoism which, while sur- 
rounded by the most wonderful mysteries that 
we are always trying to solve, and realizing that 
we ourselves are the greatest mystery of all, 
is yet so easily content with some trumped-up 
explanation merely showing our ignorance. We 
seem prouder of our own ignorance, and the ex- 
planations of mysteries springing therefrom, than 
we are at the discovery of any new law in nature. 
Egotism admits of nothing new. To keep 
everything down to the old level is very pleas- 
ing. 

So I had tried to still the voice which told me 
that here was the revelation of a great truth, by 
quoting what some so-called scientist has called 

optical illusions.” In my thought I had denied 
the truth of God by doubting the truth of ni}^ 
eyes, the principal means, the windows, through 
which He reveals His manifestations to us. But 
here he was again — The Double Man ” — before 
me — one conscious, the other looking like a dead 
man. ‘ ^ Which is the real man ? ” I queried, ^ ‘ and 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


201 


have I been walking and talking with a spirit 
and not known it ? ” 

But Don did not leave me long with my ques- 
tions. Laying his hand upon the sleeping one, 
he gently shook him, saying, ^ ^ Awake, sleeper ! 
it is sunrise.” 

The sleeper trembled, gave a little start, gasped, 
closed his eyes, opened them again, got clumsily 
down from the stool, stretched himself, yawned, 
staggered to the box mirror, and extinguished 
the light, seemingly oblivious of our presence. 
Turning, he first perceived me, and stretching out 
his hand, exclaimed : 

‘‘You here so soon? I have had a fear ” 

Then perceiving the other, he sprang into his 
outstretched arms, exclaiming, “Oh, my father ! 
how glad I am to see you again ! ” then holding him 
at arm’s length gazed lovingly in his face, the 
while questioning, “ Why have you been gone so 
long, when I needed you so much ? ” 

“ Ah, my son, your own fault ! How little you 
understand your own nature and the subtile laws 
of spirit ! How could I come when you had shut 
the door of your own soul ? This dark experience 
with Ina since her death has totally unfitted you 
to hear me or receive my influence. Please do 
not interrupt me. Allow me to explain the law. 
Love, per se, is divine ; it is God. Under the in- 
fluence of your love for Ina was I called forth. 
It was not your mirror-gazing, as you supposed, 
that separated your spiritual body from the 


202 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


material ; it was the pure love of your soul for 
the soul of Ina that did the work. Well, now, if 
soul-love is God, a selfish love is the devil. Ina's 
love for you was diverted from soul to matter, or 
passion, through the great wrong Dr. Parker had 
done her. This wrong absorbed her mind till she 
could think of nothing else but herself and him. 
All the love she had for you returned to herself, 
and there fermented, or from the sweetest thing 
in heaven or on earth became the sourest and 
bitterest. In this putrefaction, this turning of 
love wrong side out, love fell into bitterest hate. 
She died with a curse on her lips, and as she or 
anyone else dies, so they remain. Her curse will 
resound throughout the halls of Eternity, and echo 
down the vistas of time, till forgiveness rejuve- 
nates her soul. This is your work. You cannot 
rest — no peace can come to you — till you are free 
from the contamination of her curse ; and this 
cannot be till she forgives the doctor, and ceases 
to curse. Would you learn bow her curse came 
to affect you ? Listen ! When her love fell into 
such bitter hate it gradually withdrew its po- 
tency, its sweetness, from you, and as her spirit 
had become closely blended or amalgamated with 
yours some portion of your spirit went with hers. 
Because of your sympathy with her you began 
to think of your great loss. Thus self was stirred 
with indignation and you felt like cursing 
also. It was thus that you sought the grave of 
Ina and bowed down in a selfish grief, in the 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


203 


very midst of a black magic circle of devils 
who were called together to wreak vengeance 
upon poor, ignorant, misguided Dr. Parker. You 
caught the spirit there, and gathered, from her new- 
made grave, dust, every atom of which was ani- 
mated by the malignancy of her spirit. Thus you 
cast her curse upon the doctor, to his ruin as well 
as your own. True, the dust was only a symbol, 
hut everything is symbolic. These bodies are 
mainly dust, symbols of that primal curse after 
the fall we are told of in the Scriptures. Your 
prayer written on that slate has been answered, 
but it is well for you that I was here. The 
marks on your throat show what malignant spirit 
was necessarily called up from the abyss to enable 
you to descend where curses are embodied.” 

As he spoke I looked at Don’s throat, and there, 
plainly to be seen were the livid marks of the 
hand that had clasped his neck. 

^‘It now remains,” resumed the speaker, ‘^for 
me to point out the course for you to pursue in 
order to undo, as far as possible, the evil that has 
been wrought. Bear in mind that love is God, 
and love is the only Saviour. Dr. Parker is 
too far lost for eveii the memory of love to he 
arrested in time to prevent his being reincar- 
nated as a dog ; but Ina may yet be saved 
through you. Her memory yet retains your 
image, and her soul the smouldering embers of 
the love she felt for you. It is for you, then, to 
become her angel to lead her up to the land of 


204 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


love and peace. In order to do this, every par- 
ticle of envy, anger, pride, selfishness, peevishness, 
and fault-finding must be eliminated from your 
mind and spirit. In place of these must come an 
absolute trust, repose, and confidence in Divine 
Providence, love, and wisdom, till you can cry out 
from your very soul, ^ Father, forgive them, they 
know not what they do.’ You must learn to feel 
pity for poor Parker — nay, more, you must love 
him and desire to do him good. Till you attain 
that condition, do not look for me. 

“You need change of place and all surroundings. 
When that is effected, fasting, diet, prayer, medi- 
tation, and daily bathing will fit you for your 
work. Ere the sun rises again go from here 
to the far West, to Yellowstone Park in the 
Eocky Mountains. There, on one of the highest 
mountains, in a secluded place, near to one of the 
many springs that boil up from mother earth, 
you will find ‘The Grotto,’ in which at present 
the Wanderer resides. He will teach you.” 

He ceased speaking, and they clasped each other 
in an embrace, from which only one emerged 
— the one with the livid mark on his throat. 

The next morning, ere the sun arose, I walked 
with Don beyond the city limits, where I bade 
him good-bye and godspeed, after having ex- 
tracted a pledge to write me fully of all his 
doings and experiences. I watched him, with his 
satchel thrown over his shoulder, slowly ascending 
a little hill, till there was nothing between him 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


205 


and the dark clouds which lay in the west, upon 
which the rising sun shone, making a kind of 
crimson and golden halo around what looked 
merely like a black mark. Thus he passed out of 
my sight, but not out of my life, for although I 
have never seen him since, he sent me long years 
afterwards the sequel to Ina’s curse. 


206 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


PART II. 

THE SEQUEL. 


CHAPTER I. 

EXPERIENCES OF THE DOUBLE. — THE TRUNK. 

Long years have passed since Don and I parted, 
years of trials and grief to me ; still I heard noth- 
ing of him. Driven at last, through force of cir- 
cumstances, as we are all driven in this life, I 
found myself a wanderer in Texas. In the mem- 
orable year 1891 the following manuscripts came 
to me in this manner. One day, in passing the 

express office in H , I found an auction sale 

of unclaimed freight, such as trunks, boxes, port- 
manteaus, etc. , going on. The auctioneer shouted 
as I passed : “ This trunk was shipped by Don La 
Velle from some way-station in Montana, two 
years ago, to one Charles Maru of this place. It 
has not been claimed, and no trace can be found 
of the shipper or of the consignee. Our charges 
on this trunk are three dollars. Who wants it ? 
I’m bid fifty cents ! Going at fifty cents ! Do 
I hear no more ? ” Meantime I had pushed my 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


207 


way through the crowd and examined the trunk, 
and I hid seventy-five cents. A small black-eyed 
woman, whose eyebrows met above a prominent 
nose, bid promptly one dollar. Of course I retired 
from the contest, for I had bid all the money I 
had. The trunk was struck off to the woman, 
who called a drayman to remove it. 

I followed, and when an opportunity pre- 
sented, said to the woman : Madam, the owner 
of that trunk was a dear friend of mine many 
years ago ; but I have lost all trace of him — 
never heard his name called for many years till 
this day. I wanted the trunk only as a memento 
of him. I bid seventy-five cents, and it is fortu- 
nate for you that I had no more, or you would 
have paid dear for it. ITl give you all the 
money I have to know its contents.” 

Looking me in the eyes for a moment, she re- 
plied, ^^Sir, you are a stranger to me, but you 
have a kindly look, and I will frankly say to you 
that I purchased that trunk for its own sake, and 
not for its contents ; come with me and you shall 
see its contents.” 

A locksmith was procured when we arrived at 
her residence. The opened trunk showed mainly 
a pile of manuscripts in Don La Velle’s well- 
remembered handwriting. As they were of no 
value to the lady, she readily parted with them 
for the seventy-five cents I offered. From these 
papers I collate and elaborate the following tale. 

It began as follows : 


208 THE DOUBLE MAN. 

“ Mr. Charles Maru, 

“ Dear brother, — As I am about to quit this earth 
permanently I send the accompanying papers to you. 
They were written for a dear friend of the long-ago, 
of whom I can get no trace since 1875. That friend 
was F. B. Dowd. I trust that you will transfer them 
to him if you ever have the power to do so. I remain 
as ever yours, in a love transcending all ordinary love, 

“ Don La Velle.” 

A SEQUEL TO INA’S CURSE. 

A few reflections may not be out of place ere I 
begin my narrative. I was always hungry. I 
always, as a boy, was fond of asking questions, 
and very easily made to believe what was repre- 
sented as truth. I read much, but I thought 
more. Preachers said one thing, but Science said 
another. The Bible said one thing about crea- 
tion, while Geology said another. One creed said 
the world is only six thousand years old, while 
others say its age is altogether unknown. The 
great majority say that man exists after death, but 
some say no. Some believe that God rules, which 
is, when followed to legitimate conclusions, only 
fatalism. For if God rules one thing. He rules 
all, and if so, what is man, and why do nature’s 
laws hold him responsible for his acts ? If God 
rules. He alone is responsible ; for He orders and 
ordains. In this contradiction of ideas and beliefs 
my youth was passed, with the cry of my soul 
ever uppermost in my mind, What is truth ?” 
They said I had a soul to save, and with it a spirit. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


209 


I knew of the spirit, for I saw different spirits 
manifested by different individuals ; but the soul 
I knew not of. Belief is a necessity of man’s 
existence, for all progress is due thereto. But to 
ascertain ivhat to believe was the question. To 
say I believe in a future life is logical, but 
to say I do not believe in it because I do not know 
is certainly illogical, for we believe in uncertain 
things, while that which we know is a certainty. 
Belief is the advance guard of knowledge. The 
spirit ever beckons the soul to explore the vast 
wilderness of the Unknown. I became an ex- 
plorer of man. I need hardly say how I arrived 
at conclusions, but will dogmatically assert that 
man is threefold in his being — A — Soul, first — 
primal; Spirit, second; Body, third. This third 
part, the first and last thing to appear on this 
earth, is of the least consequence in the search into 
the unknown. I found that mind is a growth, 
like a mushroom, out of the rich soil of the primal 
element — the soul. I have learned that the body 
is its servant, which it subdues and destroys at 
pleasure. Even its sensations are suspended or 
enhanced at pleasure. To explore the spirit, then, 
to learn its laws, its modes of action, became my 
absorbing occupation. Condensed spirit is the 
body. From vapor it comes, to vapor it returns. 
That substantial thing hegond vapor, -I longed to 
find. That God beyond heat, the source of fire, 
the source of thought, the reservoir of conscious- 
ness, I set myself the task of finding. By a sys- 
14 


21U 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


tematic course of bodily treatment, which it is 
not my purpose to explain here, of mental train- 
ing (as an acrobat or pugilist trains his muscles), 
I ascertained that a spiritual body may be found 
in these bodies of ours, which, when fully formed, 
may be detached from the physical form, pro- 
jected, and thus one may be double : first, in his 
own imagination ; secondly, perceived or felt in 
his own consciousness ; thirdly, an objective being 
exactly like this body. 

Jesus said : Grod is a spirit.” 

If so, and I have a spirit, I am part and parcel 
of this boundless, infinite spirit, and by explor- 
ing the spiritual of myself I may come upon 
that point wherein God unites with me. Jesus 
said again to the unbelieving Jews : The king- 
dom of heaven is within you ; ” and these bodies 
have been called ‘Ghe temples of the living God ; ” 
if so God dwells therein. To feel, then, the pul- 
sations of God in our hearts is to know that the 
birth of a new man, the spiritual man, is at hand. 
If God dwelleth in me I shall know no fear at 
leaving my body, for as I enter spirit I am draw- 
ing nearer to the great Spirit who is the life of 
all things. Shall I not be more alive in spirit 
than in this body ? Fortified by this philosophy, 
and having had experiences satisfactory to me 
that under favorable conditions my spiritual self 
would evolve himself from me, I set out on my 
journey to the Eocky Mountains, as I was com- 
manded to do by the spirit, after witnessing that 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


211 


fearful scene in the old tobacco- factory. How I 
journeyed, and the events of the long journey, it 
is not necessary to recall. Suffice it to sa 3 ^ that 
when memory, with the fond image of Ina up- 
permost, swayed my mind, I was sorrowful and 
oppressed, and traveled alone suffering with ach- 
ing limbs and bruised feet. The journey at such 
times seemed interminable ; but when I forgot 
myself and Ina, in contemplation of my father 
(as my spiritual self styled himself), I was con- 
scious of nothing hut his presence, and the long 
distances disappeared as if by magic. After such 
an experience I felt renewed in every muscle, 
my body stronger, my mind clearer, my soul 
buoyant, content, happy, trustful, crying out in 
every thought, ‘‘Thy will be done, 0 Father, 
not mine.” 

Time seemed “to fly on angels’ wings,” and 
although I had little money I did not want for 
anything on the journey. But I could not 
remain long in this condition ; the presence of 
others, the noise of trains, of thunder, and of 
people passing jarred upon my nerves so as to 
prevent this exaltation ; and at such times I had 
to journey alone. It was thus I learned the full 
value of silence. “ Silence is strength ” is the EX 
motto. 

Thus led by the spirit, I at length arrived at 
the most inaccessible part of the Sierra Nevada. 
I went blindly as I was led by the hand at times 
or directed by a voice issuing from the pit of 


212 


llIK DOUBLE MAN. 


my stomach. It was night, but I paused not in 
my journey. On one side a gigantic moun- 
tain towered above, on the other lay low timber- 
clad hills, while close by my side ran a murmuring 
brook, whose banks were lined with bushes. I 
was traveling eastward, and the full moon was 
slowly rising over low hills in front of me. Thus 
walking, looking at the moon’s silvery light and 
the long shadows she cast before her from tree, 
shrub, and rock, all at once I became aware of the 
approach of a man walking apparently right out of 
the moon towards me. The illusion was so perfect 
that I was startled at first, and a cold chill passed 
rapidly over me. He came slowly nearer, and I 
saw that his hair fell low on his shoulders ; his 
head was bare, and a wreath of some kind of 
green encircled a broad, high brow. Over one 
shoulder was thrown something like a cloak, on 
the other he carried a shepherd’s hook. His feet 
were dressed in wooden sandals lashed with straps 
over the instep. I observed all these details in a 
moment of time. 

With a glad smile he approached and held out 
both hands to me, whereupon I rushed into his 
arms. Tenderly he clasped me to his bosom. 
Thrill after thrill of soft, delicious sensations 
ravished my being. No tongue nor pen can de- 
scribe the ecstasy which I experienced at that sul)- 
lime moment of my existence. I thought I knew 
what ecstasy was, for I had experienced many 
phases of it, and imagined I had sounded the 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


213 


depths and powers of the nervous system in this 
respect ; but I realized in that one supreme mo- 
ment of my life the utter folly of thinking that we 
poor mortals actually know anything of the sub- 
lime heights of heavenly bliss. It was only for a 
moment that he held me thus, when he melted 
away as completely as if he had never been 
there, leaving me alone with the ecstasy ravish- 
ing my being, as a proof and reminder of 
his brief presence. 1 was. not entranced, but I 
dropped to the ground, and lay there throb- 
bing with pleasure, till the moon was high in 
the heavens. At last I became conscious of 
hearing faintly strains of most delicious music. 
I listened intently, agreeably surprised, for I 
supposed that not a living soul except myself 
existed near that wild, almost inaccessible region. 

I could not locate the direction whence the 
music came, for each shrub, bush, tree, and rock 
seemed to exhale the low, sweet, saddening strains 
of melody. At length the music grew stronger ; 
it concentrated. I arose and approached its 
source. Seated upon a high rock overlooking the 
valley, was an aged man playing upon a huge 
harp. His head was bare, and his high, broad 
brow was deeply plowed with wrinkles. His hair 
hung in white, fleecy waves on his shoulders, 
mingling with a massive white beard that lay 
low on his bosom. I approached ; his eyes were 
raised toward the moon, as if in deep contempla- 
tion, while his long white Angers swept the chords 


214 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


of the harp, softly, lazily. All at once he dropped 
the harp and saluted me without lowering his 
eyes a moment, saying, “ Well done, my son ! I 
have waited for thee six thousand years ! At last 
we meet ! Oh, how many have tried, and proved 
‘ too late ’ / Follow me ! ” And taking up his 
harp, he walked rapidly into the dense forest, I 
following. We soon arrived at an overhanging 
rock, which jutted out from the mountains. In 
front of this rock was a deep abyss, leaving barely 
room for a man to walk. A small orifice under 
the rock admitted us to a rough cavern, the fioor 
of which was covered with forest leaves. In a 
niche was a bed of leaves, with a blanket spread 
over them. The furniture consisted of a low stool, 
a rickety, rough table, upon which were some 
tin dishes and a small lamp already lighted. The 
old man seated himself upon the stool, and mo- 
tioned me to be seated upon a piece of rock that 
lay by the side of the wall. Then he looked 
squarely in my eyes. The lamp was a small one 
emitting an imperfect light, and he sat with his 
back towards it, thus throwing his face in the 
shade ; but in spite of the semi-obscurity his face 
was as visible to me as if it had been fully illumi- 
nated. His eyes, large and full -orbed, shone like 
stars. I could not meet his searching gaze ; I 
shrank into myself, trembling like a leaf. My 
breath came in gasps, my heart beat violently, 
and I was about to fall, when he broke the spell 
by speaking. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


215 


son, I know the object of your visit, but 
I should like to hear it from your own lips. 
Speak fully ! ” 

Kind sir,” I replied, gathering my senses 
together as best I could, which was easier since 
he had withdrawn his gaze from me, ‘ ‘ I seek to 
acquire the power of leaving this imperfect form 
at will, of being absent any length of time, and 
of resuming it again at my pleasure.” 

‘‘Why do you wish this power? you already 
have enough for use in this world.” 

“Yes, sir, I am aware of that, but I wish to be 
of more use to the world than to merely vegetate 
and employ my powers for the aggrandizement of 
myself at the expense of others. The old beaten 
road traveled by mankind I know full well, but 
I want to know how to die as well as to live, and 
then to live again as if I had not died. In other 
words, I wish to be a disembodied man for a 
season, so that I may explore the spirit-world, 
and learn the condition of mankind after 
death. ” 

“Ah, my son, you little know what you ask ! 
Know you not that in my Father’s house are 
many mansions ? Know you not that the spirit 
realms are infinite ? The stars are worlds peopled 
with intelligent beings, some like men in form, 
others bearing very little resemblance. Upon 
some of these worlds the average life is far 
shorter than ours ; upon others death and decay 
are hardly known. Do you not know that all 


216 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


worlds are spiritual worlds in one sense, and 
physical in another ? ” 

I hear you say so,” I replied; ^‘but I want 
to know for myself. I wish to visit all condi- 
tions, to” 

‘‘But, my dear sir, to what end? However 
gratifying such knowledge might be to you, of 
what use would it be to others ? You would 
reveal it to others, is your thought, hut a rev- 
elation is not knowledge ; it could only incite 
belief, and there is full enough of that on earth 
now.” 

“I admit all that, but could not I establish a 
better belief if I knew as an actual fact ? ” 

“No, my son, you could merely establish an- 
other sect, which would increase opposition and 
war. Belief is exactly according to the spiritual 
unfoldment of the soul, and this is in exact pro- 
portion to the love. Men believe as they love to, 
not as they think. Man thinks exactly as he is, 
but his belief is a little better or a little worse 
than he is. And for this reason only are your 
wishes reasonable. The varieties of belief, the 
multiijlicity of sects, the clash of ideas, are the 
beacons on the road of progress. Wars are the 
legitimate offspring of this clashing of ideas and 
interests. That which you ask for can be of no 
other use than to disturb the stagnant mental 
waters of a few. The great majority must grow 
downward., through suffering and sorrow, ere they 
will learn to think. Popes, cardinals, and priests 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


21T 


fan the fires of superstition, and the people run 
mad with the idea of the ^ divine right of kings ^ 
and the divine right of servitude, shout and 
murder each other for an illusion, an idea having 
no foundation save in the ignorance of mankind. 
I will assist you to explore the spirit-worlds. 
Find Grod if you can, and see if He is a demon 
or otherwise.” 

Having wrought himself up to this point, with 
eyes blazing he pointed his finger at me, saying : 
‘^Qo!” 

I fell on the fioor, but, regaining consciousness 
in a moment, I looked without emotion upon the 
old man sitting there, and myself lying upon the 
fioor with wide-open eyes. But I could not tarry. 
A force of which I had no previous knowledge 
impelled me from the grotto. I sped away, not 
of my own volition, with no idea of destination 
or object. I walked, but my feet sensed no con- 
tact of substance. I fiew over mountains and 
valleys unwearied and unspent. I sensed no 
passing objects and met no obstacles. Singularly 
calm and tranquil, without care or anxiety of any 
kind, without even curiosity, I sped away like 
the wind. I paused not to analyze my sensations, 
but was vaguely conscious of a peace and rest 
truly marvelous. The very breath I drew was 
exhilarating to intoxication. Of the lapse of 
time I took no note, for my senses seemed lulled 
to sleep. I knew the moon was far in the west, 
and that I was traveling towards the crimson east, 


218 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


where the sun would shortly show himself. After 
a while I found myself unconsciously exercising 
volition. I saw that by the slightest effort of will 
I could rise from the earth and float in the air. 
A desire came over me to rise to the surface of 
the atmosphere if possible, but of this 'possibility 
I made no note at the time, for indeed I had 
ceased to remember that the impossible existed. 
I reasoned not ; I forgot that gravitation existed, 
and absorbed in the idea of rising, I soared up- 
ward. A certain portion of atmosphere must 
have moved with me, for I felt no rushing of air, 
no obstruction or friction in my passage. It was 
a voyage in the unknown, without chart or com- 
pass, and without incident. I had expected the 
cold to increase with the altitude, but I sensed 
no change, and in thinking of it now I conclude 
that my sense of feeling was suspended, for I 
sensed nothing till, to my surprise, I found I was 
not inhaling the air at all. I was conscious of an 
ecstatic condition beyond my powers to describe. 
I had ascended to such a height that when I first 
looked downward the earth was scarcely discern- 
ible. I paused to contemplate it. The great 
ball lay there with its mountains scarcely visible, 
the ocean glistening like a mirror in the rays of 
the morning sun. To the west was a dark cloud 
totally obscuring that portion of the earth. It 
was the night fleeing from the sun, while that 
portion of it directly illuminated by the sun 
sparkled and glowed like a diamond in lamplight. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


219 


Clouds, vapory and dim of outline, floated lazily 
far below. Ascending still farther, the earth 
disappeared. Above, the light paled, and the 
sun became dull and leaden, while between me 
and the earth was an immense lamp, as it were. 
The atmosphere charged by the rays of the sun, 
the atoms bursting by the electric force thus 
liberating the ether, were all of a glow. It was 
a sort of combustion or conflagration causing the 
great ball of atmosphere surrounding the earth 
to glow like a huge lamp. 

As I ascended, even this light disappeared, and 
the sun was no longer visible. The sense of 
gravity, what little I had of it, was entirely dissi- 
pated. I had no way of knowing whether my 
head was up or my feet, whether I was vertical 
or horizontal. The sense of motion also was lost. 
The only way I could judge of motion was by the 
changes taking place within myself. The opaque 
darkness became oppressive. It was like a wall 
pressing upon me from all sides, or I was in it as 
a fish in water, without the feeling of being at 
home. Then there came the thought- of Ina, and 
love surged up in my soul, as one cries out with- 
out a sound. 

A voice low and sweet issued in whispers from 
the darkness. ‘^My son,” it said, this is the 
abode of the dead. You are not dead, and there 
is no place here for you ; return to earth and pre- 
pare yourself.” In a moment I found myself 


220 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


gasping for breath in the grotto, with the old 
man bending over me. 

Why did you return so soon ? ” asked he. 

Because I could go no further ; I came to the 
place of the dead, and some one said I had no 
place there till I was dead. Must I die ere I can 
explore the abodes of the dead ? It was my Astral 
which carried me that far. Can I acquire the 
power to go further ? ” 

‘‘It impossible to do so, but whether you can 
do it is doubtful. So long as you are merely a 
double man you cannot. So long as a vestige of 
your corruptible form remains on earth you are 
bound, tied down to it. No spirit can be com- 
plete till every atom of the physical body is in- 
corporated in it A dead body holds the spirit 
waiting in the Astral realms for it to join, and 
the slow decomposition holds the spirit earth- 
bound for very many years. The practice of 
burying the dead is one great cause of reincar- 
nation, for every worm gf^nerated in a corpse 
takes that much life from the waiting spirit, thus 
rendering it weak and incomplete. It must of 
necessity return, for no incomplete spirit can 
escape this earth. You, having developed the 
Astral body, may go further and develop the 
spiritual body, which will transform this flesh 
into spirit, so that there will be nothing left to 
call you back to earth when you choose to leave. 
Cremation is far preferable to burial, for the 
spirits of the cremated become speedily as per- 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


221 


fec.t in form as they were while living on earth. 
You can enter the apparitional state if you choose 
to devote several years to preparation.’’ 

‘ ^ What do you mean by the apparitional 
state ? ” I asked. 

‘ ‘ I mean that the inhabitants of certain worlds 
have the power of appearance and disappearance 
at will, and some of them have the power of 
assuming any form they choose. They have 
power to visit any world, place, or condition, and 
can adapt themselves to the peculiarities of any 
person or thing. If they choose they are proof 
against fire and all pain and disease. They do not 
die, but disappear, leaving no trace of themselves.” 

“Sir,” I replied, ^^you astonish me! Do you 
think it is one of these beings who has spoken to 
me from the pit of my stomach, and appeared as 
the double of myself ? ” 

“Yes, and no. It is one of them, and at the 
same time yourself ; for indeed you have your 
choice to be mortal or immortal. ” 

“ Alas, sir, I have no choice. I wish to know 
all — to he all or nothing.^’’ 

“ My son, you are a hold man ! Do you not 
fear the devil ? ” 

“Nay, good sir, there can be no devil where 
God is ; and He fills all. There is no place, form, 
nor condition where He is not. It is He who 
makes me bold to explore His Infinite realms 
and to question His wisdom and goodness to His 
face. If it be true that He is good. He cannot 


222 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


object to being searched out. If He is evil I am 
His superior, and will expose Him.” 

‘‘Well said, my son. You shall have your 
wish, and all the good angels shall assist you. 
Three years from now you will be free.” 

He then bound me by a solemn promise not to 
reveal his methods of training to any but those 
who were capable of attaining the same. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


223 


CHAPTER II. 

MY SECOND JOURNEY. 

The three years of experience at the grotto I 
pass over in silence, not, however, that it is void 
of interest to many, but because few would be 
benefited by its narration. I reached a condition 
at that time altogether incredible, for history 
furnishes no parallel to it except the story of 
Philip’s disappearance after the baptism of the 
eunuch (see Acts viii. 39, 40), and the story of 
Apollonius of Tyana, in which modern Christians 
pretend to believe the story of Philip ; but they 
would treat my statement with contempt. While 
I do not do these things like a mountebank for the 
amusement of the rabble, I give in the following 
pages that which is far better, viz., food for 
thought, an eye-opener for the soul of him who 
hath mental eyes. 

By innumerable experiments I found that I 
was no longer attracted to the grotto. My Astral 
form ceased to appear to me, and the old man 
assured me I was ready to begin my exploration 
of the spirit worlds. To describe myself as a 
spirit, having personality, form, and all the attri- 
butes of an organic being, and yet without tangi- 


224 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


bility ; no form that remains a fixture, but a 
form of motion, variable as the wind that blows 

where it listeth,” only the sound of which may 
be heard, but whence it cometh and whither it 
goeth ye know not ; ” so it is with everyone ^ ‘ that 
is born of the spirit.” A body born of the spirit 
is not subject to laws of matter. This physical 
form is partially subject to the will, but the will is 
limited in its powers by laws that are seemingly 
immutable. We move the members of the body 
by an effort of the will, but this motion is limited. 
Not so a spiritual body, or one horn of a spirit 
and not of a woman. Now the spirit constitutes 
the man. To the spirit belongs all that we call 
man, as well as all the peculiarities of individuals. 
It is the peculiarities that constitute the indi- 
vidual. To destroy the peculiarities is to destroy 
the individual, but to leave the salient powers of 
spirit intact. 

To be born of the spirit, then, the mind must be 
purged of all its passions, prejudices, likes, dis- 
likes, etc. ; in fact, of all that fits the individual 
to stay on earth. Eemember, the mind is not a 
permanency. It is a thing void of sensation, 
created by the soul to enable it to come en rapport 
with this stage of being ; hence the dismembering 
it of its potencies is only to free the soul from the 
meshes of mundane laws. Pride, revenge, envy, 
covetousness, and all selfishness are of tlie mind. 
But we do not love with the mind. The salient 
powers of spirit are those which enable it to leap. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


225 


to project, to expand, to penetrate, like a flame. 
What need hath it, then, for hands, feet, or 
locomotion ? None at all ! But form is inherent 
in it, for love is the nucleus of all forms. God is 
Love, the spirit, the soul of all forms. Spirit has 
no form, hut to it belongs motion, and motion 
supposes something to move — hence a form ; and 
this form is composed of the grosser parts of 
spirit. At death a body forms from the spirit of 
the individual, but it is formed by the Karma of 
the present life and former lives. The man horn 
of Karma and a v^oman embodies all the peculiar- 
ities of former lives. Not so, however, of him 
who is born of Love, of God, of Spirit, for in him 
the limitations of sense and of mundane laws 
do not exist. They are forgotten in the light of 
another mind, wherein intuition takes the place 
of slow deduction and the looking backward of 
memory. A man born of love cannot sin, for there 
are no laws binding any act ; he is free ! To sus- 
p;md the laws of affinity in the atoms composing 
my body was the most arduous task I had, but 
once done it afterward became an easy matter. 

It might be interesting to follow the process 
step by step to the attainment of the powers I 
Anally attained, the intense and prolonged con- 
centration of mind and energies of will, etc., but 
I pass over these, merely remarking that my prog- 
ress was rapid after I could not only feel forgive- 
ness for Dr. Parker, but love him as I loved 
all other beings in existence except Ina. The 

15 


226 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


love for myself as an individual I had ceased to 
consider, and this, with the love of others, was 
secondary, while my love for her was primal, with 
my whole soul, might, and strength.” Again 
I reiterate, the laws of sympathy and antipathy 
were not for me, for I disliked nothing in existence ; 
nor can I say that I loved Ina as an individual, 
but as a spirit which pervaded my soul. 

Many times I visited the dark sphere which 
divides the corporeal from the spiritual life, merely 
to test my powers ere I essayed to pass further. 
Spherical in form, surrounded by a white light 
brighter than the sun, the darkness of the sphere 
was so intense as to appear solid, like a black wall 
enclosing me as in a tomb. I had resolved, when 
last in human form, on finding Ina. No other 
idea or object engaged my attention. It en- 
grossed my entire being. To this end I set out 
alone, not knowing whither to direct my search. 
Before I was aware of any destination I found 
myself, in human form, sitting on Dr. Parker’s 
grave. Over three years had passed since the 
burial of the doctor, but it was as if a lifetime 
had passed over me. With what difference of 
feeling I contemplated his acts ! With pity for his 
ignorance I began meditation, but soon became 
human. The old feeling of repugnance and 
horror surged in my veins as on that day of hate 
and despair when I gathered handfuls of dust 
from Ina’s grave. This, however, passed rapidly 
away, to give place to the emotions I had been 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


227 


cultivating since then. Directly, I was in the 
spirit again. Night fell softly over the graves, the 
trees, the flowers, and the grass, amidst which the 
monuments and mementos of the dead stood up 
in strong contrast to the mysterious night that 
like a pall rested there. A yellowish mist like an 
endless ribbon extended upward from the doctor’s 
grave, and immediately I knew that in that rib- 
bon were the last exhalations of his decaying 
body, the last of his spirit, going to join him 
wherever he might he. I followed its luminous 
track ; I was no longer alone ; it was a companion. 

On through the wastes we sped, past worlds 
blazing with light, anon passing others, dark and 
dismal, rolling solitary and alone. We paused 
not till at last, to my surprise, we suddenly came 
upon one rolling directly in front, so dark and 
dense that I could only enter its atmosphere a 
short distance. I had not heretofore visited any 
of the starry worlds of space, consequently knew 
nothing of the methods of reaching them. Here 
was a repulsion which I could not overcome. I 
longed for a guide such as Swedenborg had, 
but no guide came. I must defer my visit. Un- 
doubtedly, being a novice, I had begun at the 
wrong end. I must learn the alphabet of spirit 
life. I was returning to earth, when I passed 
near tlie moon. To my spiritual eyes she was 
blazing with light almost dazzling. As I entered 
her atmosphere I observed slight changes in 
myself. Ah ! I am adapting myself to the spirit 


228 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


of the moon ! It is a pleasant sensation. I am 
condensing, I am attracted to her surface, I 
am changing, I am assuming another form ; I 
begin to melt and perceive objects, but they do 
not perceive me. I am on a mountain ; strange 
animals — birds, reptiles, etc. — pass by without 
noticing me in the least. Going down the moun- 
tain, I perceive, low in the valley, a city. As I 
approach it I see strange-looking beings. They 
certainly must be human, for they stand quite 
upright, with short legs and arms, long necks, 
small heads, round, yellow faces, low, broad brows, 
eyes round, protruding, and far apart, hair hang- 
ing long over the shoulders. They had large, 
obese bodies, which waddled along with much 
effort, their strides being not more than a foot at 
the utmost. Swinging their short arms, they re- 
minded me of the fins of a fish ; and they swayed 
their heads on their long necks grotesquely. 

I mingled with them, hut they perceived me 
not. I shouted, but they paid no attention. I 
assumed my shape of a fiery globe in their midst, 
whereupon the vast crowd fell down simultane- 
ously on their faces as if dead. 

I dwell not upon my investigations on the moon. 
I had learned already that there is in my spirit 
an automatic power of adapting itself to any 
spirit which is in harmony or in sympathy there- 
with. It is now left for me to learn to adapt 
myself to things or spirits antagonistic. I must 
learn how to compel my spirit to enter that 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


229 


which is repellent to it. In other words, how can 
the pure enter, and become for a brief period, the 
impure ? How does God become things that are 
not God ? He is doing this all the time, tempo- 
rarily, it is true ; nevertheless it is a patent 
fact. I realized that it is the all-powerful will 
that conquers spirit and molds matter. Again 
I returned to earth, and standing by Ina’s grave 
took a handful of the dust therefrom, which I 
held to my forehead. Like a flash of light I was 
wafted to that dark world to which I had traced 
Dr. Parker. I entered its atmosphere or spirit 
a little way, then paused to investigate myself. 
Looking intently into my spirit to ascertain if 
possible what was the retarding element, I saw a 
dark speck form far, far towards the limit of the 
lurid light that enveloped me. ^‘This is Ghe 
mote ’ in my eye,” I thought ; but how to pluck 
it out puzzled me. As I contemplated, it grew 
apace ; it was a vortex ; it revolved and scintil- 
lated like a bloody star. 

Continuing to gaze at it, I saw a human form 
organize itself in the midst. That form was Ina. 
This must be ^Ghe mote” in my eye, the retard- 
ing element in my spirit, the thing that limits 
me, the thing that keeps me from God ; Ina’s 
spirit dwelling in my own. 0 Love, thou art 
God ! And this love of Ina is God humanized ! 
To sink myself to its level was to learn the influ- 
ence of a curse. I must become her for a time, 
in order that the mote should be no longer a mote 


230 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


in my spiritual eye. I rushed into her arms ; 
our spirits blended, hut, alas ! the brightness of 
my own had become dull, of a greenish red or 
somber tint, still flashing far and near in tongues 
of all colors. We passed, or, more properly, I 
passed (for the duality of being had disappeared 
in this oneness) rapidly through the atmosphere 
of the strange world and reached terra firma, 
but no sun, moon, nor stars illuminated it. I 
passed through cities and towns thickly inhab- 
ited, but there were no lights save the light 
emitted by each person ; for, indeed, they were as 
much persons as they had been before death, with 
only this difference : the magnetic or spiritual 
sphere of each emitted a light peculiar to the 
person’s mind, character, disposition. There 
were those who emitted scarcely any light, but 
from whom issued a noxious stench. These 
always attached themselves to such as showed 
some kind of light. Temples were there in which 
great crowds listened with rapt attention to one 
whose light shone a little brighter than theirs, 
for they were all attracted to the light. They 
were satellites, which, having no light of their 
own, lived in a borrowed light. The ministers 
who spoke to them, and whose light they ad- 
mired, shone with a golden luster. I saw that 
this luster was also borrowed, for each and every 
person who undertook to instruct the people had 
on the table before him a great book, covered 
with gold, which shone like blood. When they 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


231 


opened and read therefrom, the burden of its light 
was the blood of the sacrifice, or the blood of the 
Lamb. The temples shone with the luster of old 
gold, and the walls were profusely decorated with 
many-colored images of angels, dragons, saints, 
gods, etc., each emitting, like the people, lights 
various and peculiar. It was a grand and gor- 
geous scene. What with the music, the oratory, 
the parades, the artistic groupings, the intermin- 
gling and blending of lights, the fantastic contrast 
of costumes, softened and mellowed in that golden 
light that sat like a halo upon each object, scintil- 
lating, flashing, smoldering in corners, or ab- 
sorbed by those darker ones, it was truly an 
enchanting and fascinating scene. An immense 
elevator ascended and descended constantly in the 
center, loaded to its utmost capacity with people 
of both sexes. Joining the crowd I was quickly 
ushered into an immense amphitheater in the 
rotunda of the temple. Language fails me to 
describe what I saw. Here, as below, there was. 
no light save that which emanated from those 
who occupied the room. But here all shone with 
the uniform luster of gold, except such as came 
and went on the elevator. These were of all 
shades of color, softened with that universal 
tinge of gold. Not a sound broke the profound 
silence. Men sat or stood by vast tables, and 
moved little balls of gold from place to place, as 
chessmen are moved on a board. They all looked 
up at the ceiling, which was a vast mirror. I 


232 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


noticed that it contained an immense map of 
the whole world, in which all nations, races, and 
governments were reflected in motion. Nothing 
seemed to stand still. Even the public sentiments 
of the people of earth were indicated by the chang- 
ing colors in the mirror. Piles of gold lay on the 
tables. And anon slight changes were made in 
it, as those who watched the mirror saw changes 
take place on the earth. Puzzled beyond de- 
scription I turned to one who was observing me 
critically, and asked for an explanation of the 
strange scene. 

“This,” said he, “is the chessboard of hell. 
Here, those who essayed to govern mankind while 
on earth are allowed to practice for a season that 
which they loved on earth. Look at their faces 
as the game shifts ; see the look on the face of 
king Louis XVI of France. See the anxiety on 
the face of Nicholas of Russia. See them shift 
the halls of gold from piece to piece. This gold 
is a magic talisman. It exerts a potent influence 
upon all who love it, whether on earth or else- 
where. Those dark-robed persons constantly com- 
ing and going are messengers to earth, charged 
with the accomplishment of certain objects, from 
that of destroying an individual or government, 
to the building up of a nation, sect, or even an 
individual. Verily, they think they are gods. 
Over there are bulls and bears of Wall Street 
and of London. There is the commercial board. 
They see all that is taking place on earth, as you 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


233 


can see in that mirror ; it is terribly exciting and 
agitating. They 'get no rest, no change, no 
relaxation of the terrible tension of mind, till, 
exhausted, they lose their wits and try to com- 
mit suicide. Of course there is no such thing as 
suicide here, but they think there is, and when 
they try it they are removed to other spaces. 
That man over there, with a scowl on his face, 

is — , and that old haggard-looking man 

by his side is . They were selected by 

those kings, who lived at the time the American 
republic was born, to destroy the republic. To 
this end they made robbers of those men, and 
not merely of those, but of hundreds of others, 
bankers, syndicates, trusts, monopolists- -rob- 
bers all — for the sole purpose of establishing in 
America an aristocracy, the hotbed wherein 
kings fasten their roots. If there is any difference 
between a highwayman and these gentry, it is 
largely in favor of the highwayman, who cer- 
tainly is no coward nor hypocrite. The one 
robs according to laws which he has helped to 
make, by taking advantage of the weakness of 
others less gifted ; while the highwayman over- 
powers others through their physical weakness. 
This one scatters wealth, the other piles it up in 
volcanic mountains, to eventually vomit pent-up 
frenzy to the destruction of all freedom. Here 
they follow the bent of their minds to the utmost 
limit, without rest or relaxation, in one eternal 
day. This is heaven to them, but it is not 


234 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


natural ; eventually it becomes very monotonous, 
and the mind breaks down in the fearful tension. 
They become insane, and being removed, others 
take their places. The older Rothschilds have 
long since passed through this financial mill of 
the gods, been sifted, bolted, and rolled till they 
are not to be found any more. Do not imagine, 
however, that they are all-powerful. No ! they 
cannot have it all their own way. Here are the 
same difficulties to overcome as upon earth. 
They try to control the affairs of earth, but there 
are powers above them who thwart their best- 
laid schemes. They call it chance, and ascribe it 
to earth or circumstances. They are very relig- 
ious, though, and sometimes go below to worship ; 
but as time does not exist here, they are at a loss 
to know when the Sabbath comes ; hence their de- 
votions are very irregular. But there are greater 
powers than these. Come.’’ 

I followed him up a winding stair to the dome 
of the temple. In this vast amphitheater, whose 
dimensions I could scarce determine through the 
innumerable objects that obstructed the view, the 
light was more brilliant than below, through the 
sparkling of diamonds and other precious stones 
which adorned the walls, desks, chairs ; hung 
from the lofty ceiling in gigantic stalactites ; or 
bedecked vast curtains that hung in festoons here 
and there without system or design, suggestive 
of chance ; sparkling, glowing, in all conceivable 
colors, they seemed to flame and scintillate in the 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


235 


far-away distance. I was bewildered with the 
beauty and glory that surrounded me. A multi- 
tude of priests, monks, bishops, cardinals, and 
popes sat on gorgeous thrones or reclined on sofas 
or chairs, scattered in haphazard manner through- 
out the room. In a niche, raised high up and 
seemingly sunk into a wall of jewels, stood two 
winged cherubs (bulls of ancient Egypt) facing 
each other. They were made of gold, but they 
were so covered with gems as to appear altogether 
like something else. Thin gauze-like wings were 
spread high above them, seeming to mingle 
together. Blood-red stones for eyes shot lurid 
flames at the other’s. Underneath was a great 
slab of gold upon which they stood. An immense 
book was lying upon a desk draped with black 
and red curtains, behind which a pope stood, 
slowly turning the leaves, which were of the flnest 
gold-leaf. He spoke, but he used no words. He 
opened his mouth, and symbols representing his 
subject issued forth like living things, which 
floated in the air for a moment and disappeared. 
Intuitively I knew his subject to be the day of 
judgment, for all the symbols that John saw in 
his visions on Patinos issued from his mouth — 
actual living things. Eapt in contemplation of 
the weird panorama, I lost sight of the immediate 
surroundings, and saw only the symbols John saw. 
One only I describe — the great white throne (see 
Eev. iv.) : A throne was set in heaven, and one 
sat on the throne,” and he appeared to look like 


236 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


two precious stones. The rainbows surrounding 
the throne were most beautiful to behold. The 
four-and-twenty elders clothed in white, with 
crowns on their heads, sparkling with gold and 
gems ; the four beasts with eyes before and behind, 
in the midst, and round about the throne, as if 
guarding it, — all these, with trumpets sounding, 
horsemen riding, confused me, so that when the 
four-and-twenty elders cast their crowns at the 
foot of the throne and fell down to worship, I 
was about to do the same, when my guide touched 
me, saying : 

“ See thou do it not ! You don’t know these 
things as I do. These men are waiting and 
looking for the day of judgment. The things 
you have just witnessed are the outpourings of 
souls impregnated with ideas of God’s wrath and 
vengeance. The concentrated spirit of all such is 
hurled upon the earth by this conclave of spirits 
to breed and foster fear on earth, to keep the 
priesthood in power. It is a pitiful thing that 
modern religions have nothing better to offer their 
devotees than cro^^;/^s, harps, thrones, and rule over 
others. God’s throne is not an object, neither 
is God a person. God’s throne is in the human 
heart, and Love seated thereon is more lovely 
than all the precious stones of the whole world. 
The four beasts thou sawest represent the four 
elements of man’s nature : Fire, Air, Water, 
Earth. When these are made subservient to 
love, all will worship love, a spirit, God. The 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


237 


mistake of all religions is that they make God a 
person, an idol. Things subjective — of the soul — 
they make objective. Salvation is from a lake 
of fire and brimstone, while in truth salvation is 
from sin. They read from the book of the law ; 
tliey are sticklers for the law, forgetting that 
‘ the strength of sin is the law, ’ and that so long as 
law exists sin will reign. Law enables man to 
dictate and judge his fellow-men. This must be 
removed before man can have love and charity 
in his heart for others. Instead, ‘ Christ is the 
end of the law, for righteousness to everyone 
who believeth.’ Who hath faith ? Not he who 
believeth in the law, hut he who believeth in 
love. Christ said to the Jews : ‘ If ye were 
blind, ye would have no sin, hut now that ye say 
we see, your sin remaineth.’ Law furnishes a 
standard for comparison and judgment. If there 
were no standard of right and wrong, there could 
be no sin. Love needs no standards. So long as 
the law exists, man will essay to govern his fellow- 
men; and popes, priests, kings, queens, and aristoc- 
racy must exist on earth ; and God and the king- 
dom of heaven be a person and a locality, instead 
of being in the man himself. The thrones of 
kings are based on the throne of God. The crown 
of kings, the mitre of the pope, bishops, cardinals, 
etc., are mere relics of barbarism, based on the 
pride and pomp of human vanity. To seat God 
on a throne surrounded by beasts, with eyes be- 
hind and before, is an astronomical concept, de- 


238 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


scended from the ancient sun-worship, sublime 
and beautiful when applied to the sun and stars 
— how beautiful to call the stars eyes ! — but puerile 
and childish when applied to a personal Grod sur- 
rounded by beasts. These men think they are in 
heaven, waiting for the second coming of Christ 
and the day of judgment, and are laboring to 
keep up there creeds and dogmas on earth. Their 
influence is felt wherever the Christian religion 
exists ; but take away their Devil and Hell, and 
the whole plan of salvation falls. No Church can 
exist without the belief in a devil. If it is good, 
then let us give glory to the devil ; let him have 
his due.’’ 

Music, sweet, low, and solemn, rolled, echoed, 
and re-echoed. Seeming to come from every 
source, it filled the room, and upon its waves my 
guide and I passed out into the starless dark- 
ness. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


239 


CHAPTER III. 

MY THIRD JOURNEY. 

What seekest thou, my friend, in this dark 
world ? ’’ asked my guide, as we emerged from the 
great city of palaces and temples. 

seek one I love who was foully wronged 
while on earth. ” 

‘‘Ah ! I see ; follow me.” We passed rapidly 
over hill and plane, without guide or light except 
that emitted from ourselves. At last we came 
to a forest upon the side of a mountain, and soon 
reached a collection of what appeared to be huts 
built in the side of the mountain. We entered 
one, where sat a man illuminated by a mild phos- 
phorescent glow which proceeded from his person. 
He raised his head as we entered, disclosing to 
me the well-known features of Napoleon Bona- 
parte. A look of stern command was on that 
face, but he seemed not to recognize us. He was 
bent over a rude table upon which was spread 
a map of the Eastern hemisphere, traced and 
blotted with blood-red lines and markings. Mut- 
tering to himself, he said, “ The glory of France 
has departed ! A republic exists where once I 


240 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


reigned supreme. It cannot last. A revolution 
involving the whole of Europe is imminent. 
Where is my army ? We must be ready for the 
conflict ! ” Touching a bell, a servant appeared. 
‘‘Blow the trumpet! call my marshals!” The 
bugle sounded ; the hut was soon filled with his 
marshals, who, bowing low, kissed his hand. The 
old fire came back to his eye. In rapid tones he 
said: “Let the army be ready to attack the 
enemy at daylight. Summon them at once ; I 
will review them.” Standing upright, his form 
clothed in his old-time uniform, now tattered, old, 
dilapidated, and covered with blotches of blood, 
he presented a sorry picture. The uniforms of 
his marshals presented a similar appearance, but 
were far cleaner than his. “ Blow the bugles,” 
he shouted. Then rang out the bugle call, 
answered in a moment by many in all directions. 

The heavens became luminous, as if in some 
conflagration. Slowly, with heavy tread, came 
the old hosts he had so often led to the gory field 
of glory. Proudly they passed by ; then came 
laboriously a host of maimed and bleeding heroes, 
disclosing ghastly wounds freshly made. A host 
they were, and as. they passed I saw th^t bronzed 
countenance blanch and grow ghastly. Next 
came a nondescript army of the dead. Corpses 
floated by, a countless throng. Close behind came 
a vast throng of tattered women, shrieking, 
weeping, howling like demons ; little children in 
rags, with woe stamped upon livid faces, came 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


241 


close to him, gazing with impudence at him, 
cried as if in chorus: Great man! give us 
back our peaceful homes and our dear fathers ! ” 
Close behind them came a troop of fiendish 
women and men, the ghouls that always follow 
an army — bloody, tattered, haggard, filthy 
wretches, robbers of the dead, prostitutes — the 
froth and scum which war sends to the surface 
of the caldron of civilization. Shriek after shriek 
rent the air ; the woods took it up, the mountains 
groaned, and the skies became bloody. Lightnings 
flashed and thunders rolled like parks of artillery. 
Napoleon stood with his head drooping, his hand 
in the breast of his coat. One took him gently by 
the shoulder and he tottered into the hut, where 
he fell upon the ground, shaking as if in an 
ague fit. 

Dost understand what thou seest ?” asked 
my guide. 

‘‘Nay, friend! ’t was a strange scene. Explain 
it if thou canst.” 

“ My son, it is a projection of his own spirit. 
The events of his life are all photographed in 
his spirit ; whenever his memory recalls those 
events, the actors therein come in obedience to 
his thought, as living actualities, and the con- 
sequences also. These constitute the flames of 
hell. These things, and worse, happen to him 
whenever his mind recalls any of the scenes of 
his remarkable career. They take away some- 
thing of his vital energy and mental poise each 

i6 


242 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


time. As you saw him fall down in a fit, so he 
lies in a comatose condition most of his time ; all 
his lucid intervals are filled with such scenes as 
you witnessed. Thus it will continue till his 
mind loses all trace of his earth life, and there is 
nothing left of the voluntary man. As this dis- 
appears, his corporeal form disintegrates, and 
there is nothing left of him hut the aroma of 
former lives — ‘ the Karma ’ — which will he 
attracted to earth again to he horn of woman, as 
another being, retaining, however, the essence of 
what he has been. It is impossible to say who 
he was before he was called Napoleon, and it is 
equally impossible to say who he will be in the 
next birth. Of the condition he will be in a 
thousand years hence, when memory, compari- 
son, reason, and the reflection of the mind, 
which is dependent upon perception of objects, 
are all lost in the subjective existence of the 
inner man ; when not even a visible form remains, 
but merely an involuntary, comatose, dreamlike 
condition, subject to attraction and repulsion, 
but totally void of volition, — I say of this con- 
dition none but the loftiest minds and the 
deepest intuitions can know anything. This 
condition is in close contact with the four ele- 
ments of earth, viz. : fire, air, water, earth. It 
is the life of matter. Spirits of this state are 
imbibed in water, air, food, medicines, stimulants ; 
in fact, all our life on earth is made up of this 
unconscious life-seeking embodiment. Do not 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


243 


stop at this thought, for in truth the mind of 
man is a womb, in which those not unconscious 
find entrance, not to be embodied but to infiu- 
ence the mind and prepare the way for the 
reincarnation of such as may be most needed 
on earth. 

‘^Napoleon was a child of destiny. The back- 
bone of kingcraft, priestcraft, and that mon- 
ster idea of superstition, the Divine right of 
kings, had to be broken. He was called into 
being to do that work. But look you at his 
fate ! The curse of all the crowned heads of 
earth, as well as that of all the hierarchies of 
hell, rested upon him. You have seen the popes, 
priests, and kings at work infiuencing earthly 
affairs. It was they who infused ambition into 
the mind of Bonaparte, whereupon the genius of 
his success, the goddess of Liberty, fled away. 
She is a timid spirit, coming from the highest 
world where Love reigns. She has a precarious 
footing, even in America. Already I see the 
poison of pride and greed of gold corroding the 
very heart of your nation. Her only hope is 
in the vast plains, rivers, and lofty mountains 
of the West. Her spirit is in the air that sweeps 
o’er the great lakes and plains from the Alle- 
ghanies to the Kockies. It is in the waters of 
your great rivers, in the grass that sighs in the 
winds of your vast prairies. But not in your 
pent-up cities ; ulcers are they upon earth, 
reeking with the filth of this world you are now 


244 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


on — SO dark and gloomy that it may appropri- 
ately be termed hell.” 

We passed on in search of Ina. The search 
was brief. In a city that reminded me very for- 
cibly of the one on earth where they lived and 
died, we found the doctor and Ina. But what a 
difference ! Apparently the same old Newcomb 
House — the same rooms and. the same occupants. 
But instead of comforts and luxuriant surround- 
ings, filth and squalid poverty in all its repulsive 
features met the eye in all directions. Instead 
of solitude and quiet rest, there were strange 
whisperings, rustlings, sighings, and incoherent 
mutterings. The doctor looked the same as of 
old, but Ina was haggard and worn. There was 
no light in her eyes. She sat listless and languid, 
as if her last spark of hope had expired. As they 
seemed not to notice our presence, I came to the 
conclusion that we were invisible to them. My 
guide had entered behind me. Judge of my 
astonishment, when, turning to address him, I saw 
in his place the man with the slouch hat and 
cloak. 

Approaching Ina, he laid his hand on her fore- 
head, saying : Arise, daughter of sorrow, 

shake off thy gloom ! behold I bring deliverance to 
thee ! ” Sta-rtled as if from a dream, she raised 
her eyes and looked at him. The doctor fixed his 
piercing gaze upon him for a moment, saying, 

‘ ‘ That is right, stranger. Hypnotize her. I have 
tried many times lately, but I seem to have lost 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


245 


my power over her.” Ina raised herself, looked 
around in a dazed sort of manner, and perceiving 
me, rushed sobbing into my arms. A look of stu- 
pid bewilderment settled on the countenance of 
the doctor at the strange sight of Ina hugging 
the air and weeping, for he was so gross that he 
could not perceive a form more ethereal than him- 
self. 

Just then the door opened, and the look on his 
face changed to one of horror as there strode, 
or rather waddled, into the room a strange object. 
Imagine, if you can, something in the shape of a 
man, yet not a man. It was fully four feet high, 
with a body nearly spherical ; legs scarce one foot 
in length, terminating in feet like those of a dog ; 
arms that reached to the ground ; hands like an 
ape’s ; a head, or rather a face, where the breast 
ought to be, round, fiat like a full moon, sur- 
rounded by short, bristling hair, that stuck out 
like quills everywhere ; mouth wide and lipless, 
in the middle of the face, with four wicked eyes 
without eyebrows. Such was the monster. 
Upon his entrance Ina gave a shriek, Parker fell 
down upon all fours and whined like a dog. The 
room vanished as if by magic, and instead of it 
we were in an immense cavern, whose dark rock 
walls were slimy with filth, in which all manner 
of noxious insects, worms, and other creeping 
things clung and squirmed and crawled, chirping, 
buzzing, hissing ; while from out the dull recesses 
of the cavern crawled all manner of noxious 


246 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


reptiles, toads, lizards, tarantulas, centipedes. 
Hissing, hopping, crawling, they twined them- 
selves around the limbs and body of the doctor, 
who, growling, snapping, and jumping about, 
tried to defend himself. 

Suddenly the scene changed and we were all 
in a splendid parlor, in which were many women, 
the veriest houris, gorgeously attired in semi- 
transparent draperies, which half hid, half dis- 
closed their voluptuous forms, alluring, las- 
civious ; in form, attitude, motion suggestive and 
alluring. The doctor, again a man in form and 
manner, gazing upon them, became inflamed in 
his voluptuous, passionate, lascivious nature. 
His eyes gleamed with a lurid light, a smile 
wreathed his features, and satyr-like he seized upon 
one of the fairest. She, nothing loth, lured him 
with lewd gestures, till, void of shame, without 
delicacy, commenced one of those orgies that hell 
only knows. First one, then another, he clasped 
in his arms, till at last, with a howl of disgust, he 
sank to the ground exhausted, while the fair 
beauties laughed in scorn, pointing their fingers 
in derision at him. Then stretched the great 
mouth of the monster, emitting a roar of laughter, 
interspersed with the words, ^Hrnpotent ! ha ! ha ! 
impotent ! ha ! ha 1 ” in which the sirens joined 
with great glee, dancing and exhibiting their 
voluptuous charms — alluring — tormenting. 

The scene changed. We were in a beautiful 
grove of evergreen trees, from whose clustering 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


247 


branches hung festoons of flowers, interspersed 
with fruit of many colors and kinds, most lus- 
cious to behold. The women wove chaplets of the 
flowers, with which they crowned the doctor. A 
most pleasant aroma fllled the air. They made 
couches of green branches, upon which they spread 
flowers, reclining thereon. Come, doctor, come,” 
they cried ; but when he essayed to do so, a look 
from the monster turned his desires to disgust, 
and sinking upon the ground, he turned such a 
beseeching look upon Ina that I was fllled with 
pity for him. They gathered of the fruit, which 
they placed before him, inviting him to eat. He 
ate thereoff, but immediately began to vomit. I 
noticed then that there existed a certain sympathy 
between Ina and the monster. He seemed to be 
under her control. She passed sentence upon 
the doctor ; the monster was the executioner. He 
closed one of his four eyes, and immediately the 
doctor was fllled by a wild fury of passion ; but 
when he essayed to gratify his lust, the eye opened 
and the fever in his veins cooled, like a hot iron 
plunged in water. 

I turned to my guide, who, as if divining my 
thought, said : '' The four eyes correspond to the 

four elements. Are, air, water, earth ; when they 
are all open these elements are in harmony in 
man ; when one is closed inharmony prevails, 
inasmuch as three only are operative. Fire is 
the life of all things, but it is destructive when 
in excess. The inspired writer has said, ‘Our 


248 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


God is a consuming fire.’ Fire is love when 
tempered by the other elements. Hence harmony 
is life, while inharmony is death. Lust consumes 
by excess of fire, and when the other elements are 
consumed, there is nothing for the flame to feed 
upon, and physical impotency is the result ; while 
the mind retains its potency for a season, as heat 
remains after the flame has ceased. In this world 
things are the reverse of those of earth. Selfish 
pleasure here becomes a torment. The fires of 
lust here find no expression outwardly, but 
burn inwardly with unquenchable fury. Such is 
the case of Dr. Parker. His feelings have not 
changed, but his mind has lost something. No 
man feels with mind. And the man without 
heart is a lost soul. Physically impotent (the ulti- 
mate of all libertines), mental imbecility, idiocy, 
insanity are sure to follow ; for indeed here there 
is nothing to employ the mind except the things 
that delighted on earth. What we have been on 
earth is here with us to excuse or to condemn. 
The things you see here are the phantasies of his 
diseased mind, projections of his spirit. We have 
entered into his spirit, and see him as he really is.” 

At these words a wave of pity welled up in 
my heart for the doctor, who was sitting upon the 
ground with his face in his hands ; and simultane- 
ously came Ina to my side weeping. 

Oh, Don,” cried she, “ I feel as I did while I 
was a girl. Oh ! take me away from that hor- 
rible man and his associates.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


249 


“Alas ! Ina,” I replied, “ there is only one hope 
for you. If you can feel sorry for him, if you can 
pity and forgive the wrong done to you, your 
spirit may be disconnected from him. Ina ! do 
not think of yourself and your wrongs at all. 
Think only this : he was born in ignorance, lived 
in blindness, acted by blind impulse and passion 
inherited from a previous life — a doomed man 
from his infancy. How can we judge his acts ? 
It is they that judge him ; they are sufficient for 
his punishment. Let us forget him and all our 
earth life but our love. Forgive, as you wish for 
forgiveness. By forgiving him you will impart a 
quality to his spirit that will assist him to better 
parentage and conditions in his next birth ; while 
at the same time you cleanse your own spirit 
from the poison of the curse joxi hurled at him. 
Curses are the poison of hell ; they are the life of 
hell. Blessings are of heaven ; they elevate the 
soul. Forgiveness begins in thought, but ends 
in the soul. It carries with it a purifying in- 
fluence that in its completeness sweeps away all 
memories of wrongs done or of wrongs received. 
Looking from the extreme heights of felicity we 
can see in each act, in each experience, the wisdom 
and love of Inflnite Providence. God could not 
be Inflnite without you, as well as Dr. Parker ; 
neither could you be exactly as you are without 
the sad experiences you have had. All souls are 
good, and there is no evil without good. God is 
in all things, and there can be no act without His 


250 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


presence and sanction. ‘ God is the soul of evil ! ’ 
What right have we, then, to say what is evil ? 
Says Isaiah : ^ Lo, I am God, and beside me 
there is none else. I make the light and I make 
the darkness ; I create Good and I create Evil ; I 
the Lord do all these things.’ Judge not then, 
for in so doing you pass sentence upon yourself, 
and put yourself in the place of Infinite wisdom. 
Who can know the ultimate of any act ? By what 
right, then, do we presume to judge our fellow ? 
That which has happened is gone into the bosom 
of God. Who dares assert that He doth not 
desire it ? All we know of this matter is that we 
are made, miserable or glad by acts we and others 
do, and often the things over which we rejoice 
turn back to destroy us, and the things over 
which we howl and moan prove great blessings. 
Then, Ina, let us weep at the follies and miseries 
of mankind, for tears are the baptism of heaven, 
and the heart is made lighter by shedding them.” 

‘‘Amen,” said Ina, going quickly to the side 
of the doctor, where she knelt, placing her arms 
around his neck, crying amid many sobs : ‘ ‘ Dear 
Guardy, forgive me the wrong I have done you ! 
I cursed you because I knew not God. I knew 
not till now that God doth do all things. I 
thought you were a free agent, and responsible 
for all your acts. I see now that we are not what 
we seem. A power greater than we forces us 
into being, forces us through and out, not asking 
our consent.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


I knelt by her side begging also for his pardon 
for the wrong thoughts I had entertained con- 
cerning him. He looked at us in a bewildered 
sort of manner for a moment, then broke into 
wild curses of both of us, and growing frantic 
with excitement, began cursing God. 

Scarcely had he uttered the name of God when 
we were startled by wild, unearthly shrieks, in- 
termingled with groans that echoed and re-echoed 
in the woods and hills, rolling, resounding far in 
the distance, faintly dying away only to roll back 
again with redoubled force. The mountains 
seemed to shake ; the rocks opened like mouths, 
out of which his curses multiplied themselves ; 
the trees shook as if a tempest raged among them. 
One great sheet of light spread itself on the scene, 
yellow interspersed with green streaks. Now came 
an electrical explosion accompanied by vivid 
lightnings, immediately followed by total dark- 
ness and an awful silence. This silence smote 
me. I awoke ; everything had disappeared save 
Ina, my guide, and myself. The mountains and 
the woods had fled away, and instead of them we 
stood by a babbling brook, whose banks were 
lined with flowering shrubs of unimaginable 
variety. A soft light enveloped us, while in the 
distance appeared a throng of men and women 
most gorgeously attired, bearing banners and 
garlands of flowers. Some sang, others played 
on lyres, while some danced upon the soft green 


252 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


bank. But they remained at a distance. Then 
spake the stranger : 

Ina, henceforth thou art free. The curse 
thou didst breathe in mortal anguish is lifted, 
because thou hast felt pity and hast forgiven 
thy wrongs. Eemember, thy curses are God’s 
curses, and they who try to take God’s place must 
suffer. He who judges or condemns another’s 
acts curses that other. The whole world labors 
under the curses man puts upon his fellows. 
The universal execration of sin is the curse 
of the Infinite, and the only escape from this 
slavery is in purging the heart from all enmity, 
prejudice, and judgment by forgiveness. You 
have forgiven the doctor and sought his forgive- 
ness. He could not forgive, because his heart 
is hard ; he has no pity, for pity is the begin- 
ning of heaven. The world has no pity for the 
erring. Its curses are grievous to bear. There 
is no escape for the doctor, for the world’s 
curse is a Karma, which, uniting with his own, 
will hurl him down to the shoreless ocean of 
nonentity, where he will become another being, 
born of Karma, of woman or brute, to toil 
and suffer another earth life, not knowing the 
why and wherefore of anything. We bid him 
farewell now ; you are free from him ; but in- 
asmuch as you were an important factor in his 
life, so long as memory remains for him your 
simulacrum will haunt him.” 

At this Ina wept. ‘ ^ Alas, sir ! must this be 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


253 


SO ? I have withdrawn my curse from him ; 
why ” 

I understand you,” he interrupted. Had he 
also forgiven you he would not have been torn 
so violently from you, but your curse is not 
alone. The whole world curses the wrong- 
doer. That is, good-meaning people everywhere 
condemn what they have been taught to believe 
is wrongdoing — they judge ; not knowing the ulti- 
mate of an act, they judge from the immediate 
consequences. The horizon of self is very large 
in our estimate, and sun, moon, and stars are 
shining brightly there, but from its small 
standpoint no sun, moon, nor stars can he seen in 
that of another. Their day is not so bright as 
ours. Alas for us when we fail to see God in our 
kind ! Ina, forget not this truth : you could not 
be the bright spirit you are destined to be 
except for the wrongs, the curse, and the forgive- 
ness. There is no virtue without temptation, 
neither pity without suffering, nor forgiveness 
without some wrong to forgive. Thank God for 
the wrongs, then, as well as for the blessings.” 


254 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTER IV. 

FOURTH JOURNEY. 

The scene changes to a vast plateau over- 
looking great plains, sparkling brooks and rivers, 
low ranges of wooded hills, dotted with small, neat- 
looking cottages of all kinds of architecture, 
with here and there a palace, and on yonder 
plain a great city, and several villages nestling 
close by the hillsides as if for protection. Cattle 
on the plain attest the fact that this portion of 
this dark world is not so very different from 
earth. Vineyards here and there, fields of grain, 
and orchards loaded with fruit astonish me. I 
see no sun nor shade, but a mild light, half twi- 
light. A gentle breeze and genial warmth, in- 
vigorating and exhilarating, charm me and lure 
us to sit on a grassy bank overlooking a stream 
in whose waters, as clear as white glass, are dis- 
closed lazy fish of many varieties and colors. A 
sturdy, red-faced man came leisurely along 
with a fishing-rod, and seating himself upon the 
opposite bank, began angling for fish. I watched 
him pulling out the shining fish, till, becoming 
satisfied with what he had caught, he rose to go, 
when I addressed him thus : 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


255 


Stranger, have you always lived in this 
valley ? ” 

Ah, no, sir,” he replied, courteously saluting 
us, have not always lived here. My earth 
home was similar to this, hut vastly different.” 

‘ ^ Then you remember your earth life ? Please 
tell us wherein this differs from it. ” 

Well, sir, in many ways : there we were 
often sick ; the uncertainty of making a living, 
the certainty of old age and death, was a horrible 
condition to be in. Here we have no seasons ; if 
we plant we are sure to reap, and we plant when- 
ever we choose. There is no chance here ; cer- 
tainty rules.” 

How long since you left your earth life ? ” . 

At this he looked puzzled, and scratched his 
head, as he replied : 

Indeed, sir, I cannot tell. It may have been 
five, ten, a hundred, or a thousand years since 
I left the earth. I have been here ever since. 
You see, sir, we have no way of measuring time 
here — no sun, moon, stars, nor seasons. It is 
always the same ; the trees are always loaded 
with blossoms and fruit. There is no death here, 
but things disappear. If I plant more than I 
need it disappears, so that I only have what I need. ” 

But, my friend, you have just caught a 
string of fish, which I presume you intend to 
eat, and yet you tell me there is no death. You 
have to kill and cook them before you eat them, 
do you not ? ” 


256 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


Oil, I see, sir, you do not understand ; by 
death I mean decay, corruption, decomposition. 
If I cook and eat these fish in a reasonable time 
it is all right, but if my hunger disappears before 
doing so, these fish will disappear with my 
hunger, and leave no trace. You see no fish in 
the creek now ; they only come when I hunger 
for them. By some instinct that I cannot 
explain, I know when they are here.” 

‘ ‘ But, friend, have you no anxieties ? What of 
your wife and children, and the friends of your 
earth life? You loved them dearly! Are they 
all here with you now ? ” 

“ I see you are of the earth yet. While on the 
earth I was obliged to lay up ^a store for a 
rainy day,’ for old age, and provision for adver- 
sity. Of right that which I provided was mine. 
1 wished a companion ; I found one, and we had 
children. I vainly thought they belonged to me ; 
but my children left me. Some died ; others by 
slow degrees changed so much as to leave no trace 
of love in my heart for them. I often thought 
how much better it would have been for me if 
they also had died when young, for then they 
would have left a memory of love behind to fill 
the acting void in my heart. Ah, friend, death 
is indeed a boon to ignorance ! Since coming 
here I have learned that I can claim as mine only 
that which I use. My wife was mine only so 
long as our hearts beat in unison and there was 
a mutual interchange of thought and feeling. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


257 


She filled my heart so full that there was no room 
in it for a ‘ vague unrest ; ’ no thought of criti- 
cism or of judgment upon her acts ever entered 
my mind. But here as elsewhere we learn, and 
change in so doing. While the hills, valleys, 
brooks, fields, orchards, the cloudless skies, and 
the endless days filled me with content and joy, 
she tired of the dull monotony, and longed for the 
sun, the changing skies, and the starry nights of 
earth ; and soon thereafter she disappeared. I 
did not grieve, for I had been taught by the way 
things adjust themselves here that when I needed 
another she would come, and so she did. How 
long she will remain I know not, neither do I 
care. Care and anxiety are destructive. My 
neighbors and friends do the same. So long as 
one is content, he or she remains. It is no un- 
common thing in visiting friends to find a vacant 
place or a new face. Content insures a residence 
and all needs supplied, but no one says this is 
mine or that is yours. All things are God’s. I do 
not even own myself ; and here is the uncertainty 
and only anxiety I have. The priests tell us that 
this is purgatory, and that we are merely waiting 
here for the day of judgment ; and I am inclined 
to think that their teachings are one great thing 
that breeds discontent among the people.” 

“ How so ? ” I asked. 

‘‘Well, you see, sir, they hold big meetings — 
there is one going on now just over that hill — in 
which they excite the people with the idea of 

*7 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


2bS 

evangelizing the world so as to hasten the millen- 
ninm ; and for this purpose they induce all they 
can to return as missionaries to earth.” 

Indeed ! do you mean to say there is a way of 
returning to earth ? ” I asked. 

Oh, most assuredly there is, and many of our 
ablest preachers go there quite frequently. There 
is a college in yonder city where men and women 
are trained in the art of psychology, and crowds 
of these adepts visit the earth, and excite the 
people and the preachers to get up revivals, etc. 
They say here, that for every revival or pro- 
tracted meeting on earth, its counterpart must be 
held here to give it power. They say they are 
not visible on earth, and these have an advantage 
over those they wish to influence.” He paused, 
looked at the place where his flsh had lain, and 
exclaimed : Good sir, you see how it is. In talk- 
ing with you I forgot my hunger, and the flsh have 
evaporated ; ” and shouldering his rod he saun- 
tered away. 

I turned to Ina. What was my surprise to see 
her face radiant with smiles, which had been a 
stranger to her face so long that I had almost 
forgotten their bewitching fascination. 

Her eyes flashed again with the old joy, her 
cheeks vied with the rose in its soft pearl and 
deep carnations. Her attire had also become 
lovely beyond description. My guide also seemed 
transformed. The cloak and slouch hat had dis- 
appeared, and he was clad now like a Persian 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


259 


prince, with sandals on his feet and turban on his 
head. We journeyed rather laboriously at first, 
for I want you to understand that in this world 
we were on, though it was, and is, the abode of 
disbodied people, the laws and conditions are very 
similar to those of earth. Gross forms are the 
rule, the exceptions being in the parts we are now 
in. Here is the realm of vastation, or the throw- 
ing off of grossness, and the taking on of ethereal- 
ized forms. To will here is to be. The spiritual 
nature here develops its salient powers very 
rapidly, because love rules and leads the will. 
We journeyed laboriously at first, but our guide 
presently said : 

“You are now free ! These forms are becoming 
more and more ethereal, and this change can be 
hastened if you will formulate in your minds 
what you most desire to be and to do.” 

We simultaneously cried out : 

“We wish to leave this world as far behind as 
possible. We desire to explore all the spiritual 
realms of the universe, not out of curiosity, but 
to find a place congenial, where we may abide, 
and forget the experiences we have passed 
through.” 

“Indeed, you ask too much,” said he. “ Know 
then that all worlds are spiritual. The infinite 
expanse of space is full of worlds inhabited by 
spirits, both in forms and formless ; but it is 
almost impossible for you to conceive of a form- 
less spirit. To illustrate, everything is attracted 


260 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


to centers, which are forms. The formless, then, 
is that which floats around, is an adjunct of 
forms, and may be coarse or fine. The further it 
is from the form, the more ethereal, and conse- 
quently formless, it is. This is invisible to you, 
but your clothing and your forms are visible. 
Still they are both spirit in different conditions. 
A child at conception is a formless spirit, yet as 
much an individual as ever it becomes ; nor is it 
any more spirit before conception than it is after 
organization. 

“ Now please pay attention. The salient powers 
of any organized being are expansive, flashing, 
leaping, moving powers. As a Are expands the 
atmosphere, as flames leap, as the wood moves 
away in a conflagration, so moves the form from 
one condition to another. Distance is nothing to 
some spirits, but gross spirits move slowly, labo- 
riously. All motion is due to will-power. Again, 
you ask too much, for this reason : Ina’s form, i. e. 
a portion of her spirit, ‘lies moldering in the 
ground,’ being consumed by worms. She is not 
complete till every atom thereof is set free by de- 
composition, and incorporated into her individu- 
ality. It is upon this stream of spirit that the 
dead return to haunt graveyards, individuals, 
places, etc., even supposing they have ever left 
the earth, which I deny in most cases. Every 
worm that is burrowing in her flesh has a will. 
Each one is an individual, an entity. They are 
all reincarnated, and are her children, for they 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


261 


have been begotten in her flesh. They have be- 
come nuclei of attraction, and as they cannot 
ascend to her she must eventually return to them. 
There is a vast distance between them. This 
distance is conditions. All distance is a matter 
of condition. The burial of the dead is a curse 
to the earth. Not till cremation shall become 
universal shall the earth be free from noxious 
worms, reptiles, insects, wild beasts, and devilish 
men. Attraction is an awful power, and no 
matter what world or stage of being you may 
reach, dear Ina, you cannot And perfect rest ; for 
those things born of you, low down in the scale 
of being, will cling to you like slime, to make you, 
in the lapse of the ages, dissatisfled with rest, 
and you will long to return to earth and activity, 
because your mother-love will desire to help the 
unfortunate to better conditions. We will visit 
Nirvana and some of the Dewi Lokas, and 
then you can choose. Don has not seen corrup- 
tion, and consequently can become whatever he 
pleases. Come ! use your wills and your imagi- 
nation. Throw off these vile, ethereal bodies ; 
take on action bodies and raiments of the sun, 
and away ! ” 

He ceased. I felt a thrill, vibrations, breaking 
up, not unpleasantly, every atom of my being. 
I was swiftly passing through space, and as I 
went I felt myself growing lighter. It was a 
sensation somewhat like what one feels in falling, 
where there is no apprehension of danger. Oh, 


262 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


such a restful, peaceful sensation ! who can de- 
scribe it in words ? But I do not think I moved 
through space at all ; it was merely the changing 
of conditions. Presently the vibrations began to 
subside, and the sense of motion gradually dis- 
appeared. I looked at myself and companions 
to note the changes. There was nothing visible 
of them save globes of the brightest light, but 
by an effort of will, in the focusing of sight, I 
perceived within the light tiny forms, correspond- 
ing exactly with the forms of m3" two friends. 
Strange sight ! minute forms, scarce one foot in 
height, yet perfect in every detail, just as nature 
made them, with a light more dazzling than the 
brightest sunlight flashing from them far and 
near ; literally, a body composed of actien — the 
actinic ray, the chemical properties, the creative 
principle, of light ; that which builds, molds, 
colors, and destroys all forms of matter ! Pres- 
ently I became aware of the presence of nume- 
rous forms similar to our own. Our guide spoke, 
but there was no sound. I felt no vibrations, but 
I saw the lights of our persons scintillating like 
stars, and felt his unspoken words as plainly as 
if they had been shouted in my ear. 

These,” said he, are the messengers of the 
gods ; let us follow them.” Even as bespoke, I 
was conscious of a change in myself. An ecstas}", 
stronger, sweeter, than mortal has ever felt, was 
mine. It flashed not through my nerves, but I 
seemed to be ecstasy itself. I heard no music, but 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


268 


I felt as if I was all melody itself. All forms 
had suddenly disappeared ; nothing was left hut 
an inconceivable and indescribable light. The 
awful expanse above, below, and around presented 
no object for the eye to rest on ; nothing but light, 
which came from no source, but simply was. Con- 
fused and astonished, I instinctively clasped my 
hands ; but there was no contact, and yet I knew 
they were clasped. I looked for my form ; there 
was nothing visible. I felt for my head, but my 
hand came not in contact with anything ; still I 
knew I was intact, because I walked, shifted my 
position, turned my head this way and that, 
perfectly naturally, all except my sensations. I 
was harmony, I was a strain of most ravishing 
melody, I was a ray of that most wondrous light, 
I was a prayer. My soul was uplifted as I looked 
upward with intense longing and rapt adoration, 
and saw in the dim, uncertain distance a trans- 
parent, cloud-like film. Slowly descending, it 
grew darker, interiorly broken in chasms of 
colors such as I have never seen on earth ; 
and out of these chasms there issued a substance 
felt but invisible. It was far more than an odor ; 
it was an aura, a breath — something to be known 
by all the senses at once ; an invigorating, exalt- 
ing infiuence, defying analysis and all description. 
A new life was given me. Quickened, attracted, 
burning with desire, I rushed towards the cloud, 
only to be hurled back by a shock that made me 
think for a moment that I was being torn into 


264 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


shreds. My blood boiled like lava ; still it was 
ravishingly pleasant. Tremulous with delight I 
prostrated myself, crying aloud, ‘^Father ! Lord ! 
I ask no more ! I give myself to thee without 
reservation ! Take me to thyself if I am worthy 
in thy sight ! ’’ 

Then, a voice, soft, low, zephyr-like, in cadences 
like a woman’s, sounded in my own soul, saying : 

My son, thou art worthy, but thou art not 
complete. That which thou seest is the veil of 
Isis ; it is within thee ; but no mortal can raise 
it or pass within. Thou must know all and 
be all ere thou canst enter here. This is the 
Brahma Loka, the abode of the gods, the home of 
Osiris and Isis, of Brahm, of Allah, of Aum, of 
Om, and of millions — aye myriads — not known by 
name. Hither come all unselfish acts, all aspira- 
tions of good, all prayers untainted with selfish- 
ness and unbelief, like an incense wafted from 
mortal life, to be answered by this wave of semi- 
nal fire that flows eternally from this world to 
earth, there to spring forth as grass, flowers, trees, 
fruits, grains, and all things good. Even the min- 
erals and clods under your feet are caused to be 
by this seminal aura, this fire that burns in the 
blood of all animate beings, prompting to the 
production and multiplication of the species. 
This is the seed of things, that flows from the 
gods beyond the veil, heing projections of them- 
selves. 

Hn the beginning was the seed, and the seed 


THE DOUBLE MAH. 


265 


was with love, and the seed was love. The seed 
was in the beginning with love, all things grew 
from seed, and without seed no thing grew. In 
the seed is life, and life is the light of men.’ Thus 
reads St. John, ch. 1st, verses 1-2-3-4, when 
translated and rendered in comprehensive terms. 
The forms you saw just now have all combined 
as one. They have coalesced, but they still retain 
all their individual characteristies. As one all 
the gods act, as one all spirits on this plane act, 
and this seminal fire which fiows from here to 
earth is the infiuence you term life. The best of 
earth are the greatest reservoirs of it. The earth 
labors in sin and sorrow through the laws man 
has made to regulate this same divine fire that 
burns in souls to the propagation of itself. You 
are a ray of Divine light — the actien, or soul of 
light and life, the beginning, creator. As quick 
as thought you may project yourself to earth and 
into the mind of anyone you choose, there to 
burn and beget desire, to illuminate, to inspire in 
art, literature, inventions, etc. It is said* that a 
ray of light requires about eight minutes to pass 
from the sun to the earth, which might be true 
if light fiowed from the sun, which I deny. 
The philosopher that Swedenborg saw in spirit, 
puzzling his brain over the problem of which 
is greater, the center or the circumference ? ” is 
apropos here. By the very nature of things, 
by the rotation of the earth upon its axis, by the 
construction of body and mind, it is difficult to 


266 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


conceive of any condition without a center and 
circumference. For this reason A. J. Davis and 
others have spoken of a great spiritual center, 
and of spheres in spirit life one above another. 
All seem to forget this vital truth, that the 
human mind is but a simple cell and consequently 
limited in its concepts. Add another cell to it, 
and the whole panorama of existence changes ; 
the senses are modified ; things now visible 
become invisible, and vice versa. The budding 
of this new cell, if you have it, will show you 
that centers are everywhere ; that wherever a 
center is, there is a circumference ; that they two 
are naturally self-dependent, and one is no greater 
than the other. But whence come the two f Are 
they self-creative ? or are they dependent upon 
some other center that has overgrown itself and 
thrown off its surplus, as astronomers imagine the 
sun to have done in the case of worlds, and still 
throwing off light and heat ? If there were other 
principles involved than the actor and the recip- 
ient we might feel at rest about it, but when 
we consider the spectator^ the mind that is analyz- 
ing these things, we cannot help seeing a third 
principle at work creating the phenomena of 
existence. Thought is both center and circum- 
ference. All things are ideas, and thoughts 
are the circumference thereof. Mind, in order 
to imbibe an idea, must focalize its thoughts. 
This focus is the center of it, but it is only an 
aggregation of thoughts after all. Thoughts are 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


267 


the light of the mind, hut mind is not limited to 
centers. 

‘ ‘ It climbs in every expanse as far as thought 
extends, the limit being only the night of igno- 
rance, the shadow of ourselves. The mind which 
casts no shadow is so expanded that it has no 
center ; it must be all conscious, as much in one 
place as in another. I have shown you the veil 
of Isis, behind which is the abode of the gods, but 
this is because your nature does not permit you 
to comprehend anything unless it has a center. 
This is a mere projection of your own center. 
Your center enables you to perceive centers out- 
side of yourself, which are pictures mainly of 
things within. Just so it is in regard to the gods. 
They are within you, or you could have no con- 
cept of them. If light were not in you, there 
could be no light external for you. If you had 
no heat in your blood the sun could not affect you. 
Unless God is within, you can have no idea of 
Him. Spirit is all, and mind is the door of light. 
Open wide the door, and light, heat, life, are 
everywhere. The seed is scattered everywhere, 
and it is love — God ! It takes no time for thought 
to reach the sun, and if light comes from the sun 
it also is instantaneous. Light is but a thought. 
It simply is ; and no one can truly say what its 
source may be. God is ! can anyone point to His 
source ? You are ; but where did you come from ? 
‘ As a man thinketh, so is he,’ said Paul. ‘ God is 
a Spirit, and ^ the kingdom of heaven is within 


268 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


you,’ said Jesus. God is in the kingdom of 
heaven ; His word, the seed, is also there. The 
light and life are also there, within you ; where 
God is, there clusters the universe, with all worlds, 
sun, stars, and the Brahma Lokas. There resides 
in embryo, in the shadow of doubt, unbelief, and 
ignorance, that which makes all good and all 
power possible to you. Let us visit the Christian’s 
heaven.” 

The voice ceased. I felt myself falling, and 
becoming more tangible to myself. Presently 
I saw my companions by my side. Hardly had 
the voice ceased when we were at the walls of an 
immense city. 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


269 


CHAPTER V. 

FIFTH JOURNEY. 

THE NEW JERUSALEM. 

We had become decidedly more material. Our 
actienic forms had become ethereal, visible, tan- 
gible, and ravishingly beautiful. Before us rose 
the walls of a city so beautiful and grand as to 
defy all powers of description. Even the gorgeous 
description that St. John gives in Revelation of 
the New Jerusalem becomes insipid and common- 
place when compared to the original. The great 
pearly gates opened noiselessly to admit us. No 
fabled St. Peter stood there to demand a certifi- 
cate of baptism from us, but there were bright 
and shining men and women clad in radiant 
white, sparkling with gems and jewels of all 
colors and description, many of which are un- 
known on earth. Crowns of gold, sparkling with 
diamonds, adorned their heads. Golden harps 
were in their hands. They played and sang most 
melodiously, dancing in circles as they greeted 
us. The wide streets were paved with translu- 
cent gold. The vast edifices, ranging in rows far 
in the distance, in perfect order, uniform in style 


270 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


and height, were composed of pure virgin gold, 
variegated with pearls, diamonds, precious stones, 
known and unknown to us. Vast endless proces- 
sions of people were marching in stately splendor, 
all dressed exactly alike, of the same height, 
thickness, and weight. Gorgeous crowns of gold 
graced each kind, and harps of gold in perfect 
tune with each other were played upon by hands 
exactly alike. They chanted as they marched in 
perfect time and step, 

“ Hark ! from the tombs a doleful sound ! 

Mine ears attend the cry. 

Ye living men, come view the ground 
Where you must shortly lie,” 

in doleful sound very suggestive of a funeral. 
Carried along with the procession, we at last 
reached an open square in the heart of the 
city, with no seats, no trees, and no flowers, 
shrubs, or green things ; neither fountains nor 
springs, but a vast sea of heads. By some 
instinct unknown to us they seemed to know 
there were strangers in their midst, and began 
to hustle us towards the center, but no hand 
touched us. An irresistible force propelled us. 

Arrived at the center, I saw many prelates, 
priests, monks, and ministers seated in a circle 
upon thrones, with sceptres in their hands and 
crowns on their heads. All was hushed in breath- 
less silence. A cloud had settled imperceptibly 
over our head, out of which streaks of lurid 
lightnings began to flash, while close down in 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


271 


the gray half-tone of it there appeared in letters of 
fire these words, ‘‘The judgment-seat of God,” 
‘ ‘ Holiness to the Lord. ” Simultaneously with the 
appearance of these words there broke from the 
multitude a shout like the roar of the ocean : “ Hal- 
lelujah ! Hallelujah ! Glory to the Lord.” Then 
clanged the harps, then shouted they forth songs 
of glory, as if it were one voice. Amid songs and 
sweet strains of music there gradually lowered it- 
self from the cloud,- so as to be dimly seen in the 
white vapor, a great white throne upon which 
some one sat surrounded by horrible-looking 
many-eyed beasts (see Eevelations for description). 
Upon the appearance of the throne the multitude 
prostrated itself upon the golden pavement as if 
it had been one individual. Then arose one from 
the largest golden throne and opened his mouth 
to speak. Out of his mouth went forth a fiaming 
sword, saying: “Arise, ye saints of the living 
God ! Ye are the salt, the rulers, of earth ! Stand 
forth, ye heretics, who with foul, polluted minds 
have entered into this holy city ! What seek ye 
here ? Without the walls of this holy place are 
your kind — murderers, harlots, whoremongers, 
liars, thieves, blasphemers, and all that work an 
abomination ! Explain yourselves.” While he 
yet spoke, looking up I saw a mountain over- 
looking the city, where, upon a rock, sat the Man 
with a crown of thorns encircling His brows — the 
same who had long ago folded me in his arms. As 
I gazed, I saw that He wept. At the sight of this 


272 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


lonely Man weeping I was electrified. My blood 
curdled, and crying with a loud voice I said : 

‘‘Oh, reverend sirs! we are no heretics, but 
followers of the one you pretend to worship ; while 
doing so ye give the lie to His sweetest sayings. 
You have made His words of non-effect by sub- 
stituting therefor the traditions of men ! For the 
law of love ye have substituted the laws of Moses : 
‘An eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, blood for 
blood,’ when He expressly declared : ‘ I say unto 
you that ye resist not evil, but return good for 
evil.’ Ye teach judgment, when he said, ‘Judge 
not ; ’ ‘ I come not to judge the world, but to 
save it ! ’ Oh, ye blind lead ” — 

“Stop that blasphemy” shouted he of the 
sword-tongue. “Ho, guards ! executioners ! bring 
forth the whips 1 Know you not, vile blasphemer, 
that the Son of God never gave such a command 
for the government of the world. It was simply 
advice to the disciples when He sent them forth 
among ravening wolves. To follow such pre- 
cepts as that would destroy civilization. Besides, 
it is contrary to the divine character of God, who 
will destroy the wicked root and branch by the 
fierceness of His wrath.” 

“Hold, good sir 1” I exclaimed. “I perceive 
you do not understand the divine nature. John 
said, ‘ God is love ! ’ Now, who ever saw any wrath 
in love ? or who ever saw anything divine in 
wrath ? Not one ! On the contrary, you know 
that wrath is devilish.” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


273 


At this he of the sword-tongue became furious, 
and called upon about half-a-dozen men bearing 
great whips made of the toughest of branches, 
which they cast down in front of the throne. 

‘‘ Now,” said he, ‘^Mister heretic, take you a 
good whip and defend yourself. We will whip 
that notion of non-resistance of evil out of you.” 

I refused to defend myself, whereupon at a sig- 
nal they all fell upon me with the whi]3s. I stood 
it a few brief moments, but they laid on the whips 
faster and harder. They cut to the quick ; they 
laid me all open and bloody. I danced in agony ; 
I shouted for mercy ; I prayed God to deliver 
me. Looking up at the throne in my frantic 
efforts to dodge or ward off the blows, I saw 
the beasts around the white throne” wagging 
their heads at me. This filled me with wrath ; 
I seemed to expand with superhuman vigor, 
and seizing a whip I laid it around me like 
Samson among the Philistines. At the very 
first stroke the cowards ran pell-mell from the 
ring, while the judge and the crowd roared with 
laughter. 

“Now, you see, sir, the divinity of wrath ! ” 
said the judge. “ The church knows exactly 
how to convince heretics. Physical arguments 
are very great mind-openers. Moral suasion is 
good in mild cases, but physical suasion is the 
true kind for reprobates. Bring hither the 
measuring rod.” 

At this a man stepped forth with a slender reed 

i8 


274 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


just the height of the other men, and forthwith 
began to measure each one of us. That done 
he measured us around the waist with a tape- 
line, and announced the result as follows : 

“This man,” laying his hand upon me, “ is 
too short by six inches, and too big around by 
eight inches.” 

“ Let him be stretched and compressed then,” 
said the judge. “ Away with him ! ” Then 
addressing our guide he demanded : 

“ Now, sir ! what hast thou to say for thy- 
self ? ” 

“I would like to ask, sir, why you stretch 
and compress him ? ” 

“Sir,” he replied, “it little becomes one in 
my exalted position to give a reason for what I 
order. Suffice it if I stoop this time to grant 
your request. In the beginning God made men 
perfect physically, mentally, and spiritually. 
They were all made in one pattern, exactly alike, 
but since the fall, under the curse, they have ret- 
rograded to the extent that now you see them 
totally depraved. Hence the difference you see 
in form, stature, expression, and mentality. A 
man thinks according to his physical structure. 
Paul says : ‘ As a man thinketh, so is he.’ Now 
we will make him think as we want him to, and 
as we can’t stretch and mold his mind directly, 
we stretch his body, and his mind conforms to it 
if he survives the torture. ” 

“ Oh, sir ! you fill my soul with anguish,” 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


275 


cried our guide. Thou dost spit upon the Father 
in your thought ! Thou thinkest to improve 
upon God’s work in thy fellow-man, when He 
whom thou dost pretend to worship did com- 
mand thee to ‘ pluck the mote first out of thine 
own eye, ere thou dost presume to pluck it from 
thy neighbor’s eye.’ Thou dost assume to be 
washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, to be 
born again, to be regenerated, and yet thou hast 
no pity for those outside your city. Thou dost 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and 
when thou hast made him, he is tenfold more a 
child of hell than ye yourselves ! Wrath never 
yet made anyone good. Fear will do for chil- 
dren and barbarians, but he who hath love in his 
heart hath no fear, for the desire of the soul, be 
he Christian, Mohammedan, heathen, or savage, 
surely reaches God’s throne if it be winged by 

love ; and as surely brings a response, and ” 

“ Thou speakest well, sir,” interrupted the 
judge, but know this, no man knows aught of 
love till he has been redeemed through the blood 
of the Saviour. Those who are in wrath know 

not God. Thou art yet in the gall ” 

‘‘Hold on, judge! Every man that breathes 

knows God, for He is the life of ” 

“Ho, guards !” shouted the judge, “I call 

Jesus to witness my forbear ” 

“ Hold, sir judge ! thou callest on a Jew, whom 
thou callest God, while thou and thy kind hate 
the descendants of Abraham wherever the name 


276 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


of Jesus is known. Oh, consistency, thou art a 
jewel ! ” 

While he was yet speaking he was seized and 
measured, the result announced being^^^ Six inches 
too tall, waist right, chest four inches excess.” 

^‘Take them to the torture ! Grind, compress, 
and stretch them till the truth can abide in them ! 
Eack their joints asunder ! Force them to think 
as we do ! If they blaspheme, tear their tongues 
out, and burn their eyes out with a hot iron ! ” 

Then he elevated a huge crucifix, at which the 
vast throng fell on their faces and worshiped. 
We were hustled away, but Ina was detained. 

‘^This,” said our guide, is the inquisition! 
Its counterpart exists in the churches on earth. 
They think it is a heavenly institution, but it is 
hell-born. The Catholic Church does not practice 
it openly at present, and the Protestants do not 
favor physical torture, but in its place substitute 
mental torture, teaching that God will torture sin- 
ners after death, and will do so wfithout any desire 
for their improvement, but only for the amuse- 
ment of God and the saints. The city so graph- 
ically described by John in his visions on Patmos 
contains in itself the mad greed of mankind for 
gold, and the reverence of kings, priests, and 
thrones so rampant on earth. It is a magnet 
that draws the thoughts of all towards hell, hate, 
and oppression. If heaven is paved with gold, it is 
perfectly natural to worship gold. If God sits 
upon a throne to rule the world, it is perfectly 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


277 


consistent to worship thrones and aspire to rule. 
If God inspires one more than another, it is proper 
to consider such a one more divine than others ; 
hence, being more the embodiment of truth than 
others, he has a right, a divine right, to declare 
the truth, and establish it by any and all means. 
Hence the crowning of kings and the establish- 
ment of popery. It is all of hell, and a man- 
made scheme, conceived in the lust of rule, in- 
spired by demons who love not their kind. 0 
Jesus ! thou lover of the ignorant and the poor ! 
how hast Thou been traduced, lied about, and 
crucified even after death ! Alas, the vanity of 
saints who see so much in crowns and in the glory 
of treading under their feet sinners, over whom 
the poor hunted Jesus wept and prayed ! Pile 
up your fagots, make your fires hot ! if your God 
needs a sacrifice we are ready ! Eoll out to the 
fierce light of heaven your infernal machines of 
torture, for surely ye shall learn this hour that 
they avail nothing ! The spirit cannot suffer, 
neither is love made afraid.’’ 

As he spoke, the golden pavement opened wide, 
disclosing a vast vault of impenetrable darkness, 
into which we were ushered. The pavement closed 
over us. There appeared men with torches, by the 
dim light of which appeared all the hellish inven- 
tions of the Catholic inquisition, machines of torture 
that only the ingenuity of devils could invent — 
a bedstead of iron with rollers at each end, and 
clamps for the hands, feet, and neck ; a huge 


278 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


wheel with cross rollers, adjustable with set 
screws, over corresponding depressions in the 
wheel, so that one lashed on the wheel, in turning 
around, could be lightly pressed or all broken to 
a jelly, according to the desire of the operators. 
There were machines for twisting, screwing, flay- 
ing, un jointing, and suspending ; others for en- 
closing the feet, and by an ingenious combination 
of screws reducing or expanding them. A monk 
robed in black, with shaven crown and cowl, 
holding a cross, abjured us to recant our dam- 
nable heresies and blasphemies. 

‘ ‘ What do you mean by heresy ? ” I cried. ‘ ^ Is 
it to believe that God is no respecter of persons ? 
Is it to believe that God loves all with a father’s 
love, and hates none ? Is it to believe that His 
mercy is eternal as He Himself is ? and that there 
is no place so low and dismal that He is not there 
in mercy and love ? Are we heretics because we 
have too good an opinion of Inflnite power and 
goodness ? ” 

‘‘Nay,” replied the monk, “not that, but you 
deny the vicarious atonement. You deny the 
immaculate conception and the sonshipof God, you 
deny the authority of the holy Catholic Church, 
the infallibility of the Pope, and assert that the 
plan of salvation is a man-made scheme. You 
deny the holiness of the Sabbath day, which is 
second to no sin a man can commit. All these 
constitute the crime of heresy. If you recant 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 279 

such blasphemy you may be saved even now 
without torture. What sayest thou ? ” 

‘‘Sir/’ I replied, “suppose that through fear 
of torture or through fear of eternal torment I re- 
cant, and say that I accept your belief as my own, 
what good will it do God or your Church ? Admit 
that I escape present torture, I run the risk of 
eternal punishment for cowardice and hypocrisy.” 

“ Oh, sir, ” he quickly rejoined, “you forget that 
by so doing you become a fit recipient for our 
prayers, and that ‘ whatsoever sins we remit on 
earth are remitted in heaven. ’ The sin of hypocrisy 
is grievous, but still it is a small one compared to 
that of s(;ofiing at our holy religion. I am free 
to admit that most of our membership is made 
up through fear ; most of them have no belief of 
their own at all ; they simply take our word for it. 
But we are wasting time ; do you recant or not ? ” 
“No ! ” I shouted, “ I will not ! I would rather 
go to hell an honest man than go to your heaven 
a hypocrite. If God sends all heretics to hell, 
in a little time they will transform it into a 
place He will be proud of. Do your worst ! ” 
While they were binding me to the rack I felt 
the thoughts of my guide, who stood calmly 
watching the performance. He seemed to say : 
“Don, if you will not to feel, they cannot affect 
you in the least. This world is but slightly 
moved from the earth plane; you are under 
physical laws now simply through the psycho- 
logical infiuence of surroundings. This is purga- 


280 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


tory, but they think it is heaven. To them it is 
truly so because they know no other. This place 
has been building ever since Catholicism began to 
send its devotees to the spirit world. Let them 
do their worst upon you, then vanish by an effort 
of will.” 

They commenced at once to turn the screws at 
my head and feet, and I began visibly to lengthen 
out, which of course diminished my waist meas- 
ure ; but when I had completely filled the bed, I 
was still too thick. They then encased me in an 
iron jacket, which by the aid of set screws could 
be contracted. Meantime my sensations were 
not at all unpleasant. I laughed at them while 
my ribs were cracking and grinding together 
under the awful pressure. Presently they clasped 
an iron mask, made in sections, upon my head, so 
as to cover the entire scalp from my eyes to the 
back of my neck, and by turning the screws 
pressed the skull inward upon the brain. A 
sleepy languor stole over my senses, while my skull 
ground and cracked, and blood flowed from my 
nose, eyes, and ears. I certainly felt like going, 
although I had not the slightest pain, but sud- 
denly rousing myself, I willed to be free, and 
stepped out of the machine, leaving it intact, 
while the astonished devils looked at the monk in 
wild-eyed horror. The monk crossed himself, 
said an Ave Maria,” and fled pell-mell from the 
scene. We were almost immediately by the side 
of Ina, though invisible to her and the crowd . A 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


281 


few moments more, and there came the monk with 
the executioners in hot haste. 

‘‘Your Holiness ! ” he shouted, “the prisoners 
have escaped us ! even in the torture they van- 
ished ! They are wizards, and undoubtedly this 
woman is a witch. ” 

The examination of Ina, thus interrupted, the 
judge resumed : 

“You say, madam, that you are the wife of him 
you call Don. Then tell me what priest per- 
formed the ceremony.” 

“Sir, we married on earth as they marry in 
heaven. Love, which you call God, gave me to 
him, and also gave him to me, and love performed 
all the ceremony there was. Our church was 
’neath the green trees, the witnesses were angels 
and the star-eye 1 night, and the benediction was 
pronounced by night-birds that chant only the 
melodies of heaven. ‘ That which Love joins let 
no man put asunder.’ Oh !' give me back my 
husband ! ” she cried, stretching forth her arms 
imploringly. 

“ Out upon such blasphemy ! ” cried the judge, 
“ vile prostitute ! unholy harlot ! adulteress ! 
Cast her out ! God has no pity for such scum of 
the earth, and why should we have any ? Cast 
her out ! And find St. Peter, and double the 
guards at the gates, so that no more such abom- 
inations can enter.” 

Finding ourselves outside the walls, we made 
ourselves visible to Ina and passed to other scenes. 


282 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


CHAPTER VI. 

NIRVANA AND DEWI LOKAS. 

It was as if we had slept, and dreamed a dis- 
agreeable dream. The Golden City, with its 
golden crowns, its arrogance, its pride of holi- 
ness, haunted me, and it was some little time 
after we were away from its influence before I 
felt like questioning our guide. At last I asked, 
‘^Tell me, sir, is this the ultimate of human 
life ? — must it all end in the vanity of crowns, and 
the government of many by a few ? I mean, is 
this the highest goal ? ” 

Nay, friend, the universe is not limited. 
Men and women make their own conditions, and 
these conditions make places in the spirit worlds 
corresponding thereto. This city will stand as long 
as priestcraft rules earth, for its people are con- 
tinually receiving new members from earth, good, 
honest people who have never dreamed of any 
better condition than to worship some one or 
something they imagine superior to themselves. 
Their God is a person and sits on a throne, with 
a crown on His head — a God pleased with the 
abject homage of the things He has made — a 
God pleased with praise, which a true man 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


283 


despises — the praise of cowards. Such sentiments 
cannot fail to create a heaven in harmony with 
itself. But do not imagine that there is anything 
durable in existence either on earth or in heaven 
or hell, for wherever humanity exists there is 
change. A million of years are nothing to eter- 
nity. I will take you to another world where you 
may learn more than I can tell you.” 

We now went through the process of vastation, 
throwing off body, form, mind, intellect, mem- 
ory, etc., as one divests himself of his clothing, 
till there was nothing left of us but the conscious- 
ness of being, the Ego, the I, the think — an im- 
personal individuality void of all human qual- 
ities and qualifications. In this state we three 
were one coalesced. We were the mountains and 
valleys, the trees and flowers, the clouds and the 
blue skies. We had no sensations such as you on 
earth know. We were one, and what one willed 
all willed. By a thought, a wish, the heavens 
blazed with suns, stars and the reflected light of 
moons and other dark orbs. We called up the 
storm-clouds, played with the lightnings, and 
directed the winds. I was the thought, the 
question, and the answer. What is there on 
earth worth knowing ? Immediately I was en 
rapport with our small, insignificant planet, with 
all its learning, its libraries, its temples and 
cathedrals, its halls of legislation, its govern- 
ments, and its pretenses of knowledge of God 
and future existence. 


284 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


Then I answered : All that belongs to anyone 
is the passing moment. All the worth of any- 
thing, of all knowledge, of all religions, sciences, 
is contained in the consciousness of being, of 
a single heart-throb, the satisfaction of the 
moment, a single thought — Love. Of what ? I 
asked. Of self-completeness — nothing added, 
nothing taken away. Of human completeness — 
no future, no hope of some other thing or event, 
but the present complete moment — love of 
Ina. 

As a flash of lightning speeds, so sped I to earth 
wrapped in Ina’s arms. Oh, God ! I ask no more ! 
I am complete. Then from out the shimmering 
depths of love, an awful voice sounded in my 
ears : If thou art perfect in love, thou art all that 
is. If thou lovest one perfectly, thou lovest all ! 
Come up hither and learn ! ” 

Thus called, we two, now made one, were 
translated, .and stood on an exceeding high 
mountain. From its height we overlooked what 
seemed like the whole of creation. An arid waste 
was the summit where we stood. Not a cloud, 
no sun nor stars, decked the heavens; still it was 
very light. Not a green thing greeted my 
hungry eyes. No flowers exhaled a fragrant per- 
fume to bless the sense of smell. An aching void, 
in which there was nothing to gratify any sense 
whatever, was there. A great wall of granite, 
massive and lofty, reared a forbidding barrier 
before me. A cloud, no less forbidding, trembled 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


285 


over its summit, and anon in its darkening folds 
appeared, in icy letters, the word 

Nirvana.” 

Ah ! ” methought, ’tis the Buddhist’s heaven. 
Oh ! if I might know what is concealed therein — 
concealed even from the eyes of Gautama him- 
self ! Is it a cessation of existence ? — annihilation, 
as Spence Hardy conceived it to be ? ” I had 
scarcely formulated this question when a voice 
scarcely human, a voice that had lost all its sono- 
rousness and melody, a voice harsh and cracked, 
like the breaking of dry twigs, broke the silence. 
It sounded within me, and echoed and reverber- 
ated round about me ; multiplied itself, till the 
expanse was filled with it, an awful sound, yet 
distinct. It said : 

^^Thou shalt know! There can he no annihi- 
lation for anything that has had an existence. 
Things merge into and become other things, ‘ as 
one wave rolls into another on the ocean.’ But 
this cannot be predicated of anything save its 
external appearance or form. The inmost soul 
or consciousness is identically the same in man, 
worm, insect, and mammal. It is an absolution, a 
self -existent entity ; no matter how many changes 
may be wrought in its external manifestation, it 
is an eternal fact. 

‘‘Now understand : nature is a product of love, 
is in fact the voice of God, or Love, for they are 
one and the same. Please understand another 
thing : nature is plastic in the hands of man, for 


286 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


man, being the consciousness of nature, is master 
of it to a certain extent. He, being an embodi 
ment of love, is a creator and a destroyer at the 
same time. Gautama, having wearied of the 
ceaseless round of existence, of being reincarnated 
as man and beast through many ages, longing 
for rest, conceived the idea of destroying the 
sexual functions, thus putting an end to repro- 
duction of the species. Not, however, by castra- 
tion, but by a system of meditation upon the evils 
of existence, thus poisoning the fountains of 
sexual desire, and throwing back upon the brain 
the superabundant sexual fire, or seminal aura, 
which is the life. This mental discipline involves 
extreme concentration and unwearied watchful- 
ness over the emotional nature, hence a system- 
atic and prolonged culture of the will. Pessi- 
mistic meditation is to passion as water is to fire. 
The least erotic desire must be quenched by a 
hath in death, for thoughts of death kill life, 
thoughts of evil kill good. He who contemplates 
the evils of existence antagonizes pleasure, and 
is a living protest against Infinite wisdom and 
goodness. He essays to improve upon nature’s 
methods. What for ? For a selfish purpose ! — 
for a rest or an escape from the responsibilities 
of action. Not that it would confer a universal 
good upon the race — no ! that was never claimed 
by the devotees of asceticism. There are only a 
few who can expect to reach Nirvana. And upon 
these favored few, kind Providence showers its 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


287 


choicest blessings. How much this favors the 
Christian’s idea of the kingdom of heaven I leave 
you to judge. The difference is merely in the 
plan of salvation. In the one the merit is all in 
the Son of God, in the other the merit is in the 
individual himself. Gautama spent seven years 
in the mountain forests of Tibet practicing the 
peculiar rites of asceticism. 

Whatever man sets out to accomplish, kind 
mother nature encourages, and furnishes the 
means for its accomplishment, whether it be good 
or whether it be evil. She never inquires into 
motives. He who lives a life of celibacy finds the 
seminal aura in time charging his brain to over- 
flowing. He becomes luminous in vision and in 
thought. It seems as if nature comes to a focus 
in him. As the light in a sun-glass burns a hole 
in cloth, as if to escape imprisonment in a confla- 
gration, so do sexual forces act. They burn, they 
bl^ze, and he who is able to ride upon the flame 
can go anywhere, see any and everything, know 
all that is to be known. But there is a limit 
to mere knowledge. This fire surges in great 
billowy waves up and down. When held by will 
within bounds it is a great beautifier. The 
countenance glows with warmth and life ; the 
lips are red ; the skin is soft and clear ; the eyes 
emit rays of light, piercing, glowing, fascinating, 
alluring. 

But woe to him of weak will when the full tide 
sets downward. He then can seduce the whole 


288 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


world of women; he is irresistible. If he falls 
he can nevermore reach the heights he might 
have attained had he not fallen. According to 
the tradition, the fall of Adam and Eve was 
through love ; and he who would rise must climb 
the ladder of love, beginning perforce at the 
bottom round. It is Jacobis ladder upon 
which the angels descend, and man may ascend 
into heaven — but at the loss of his humanity. 
Ah ! you seem astonished at this statement, but 
consider a moment. The very soul of nature is 
love, and it will not do to make any distinctions 
or degrees in love. The affinities of matter, the 
passions of animals and of human beings, are 
propagative, the way things multiply; and this is 
at the foundation* of nature, and is as much love 
as that which pulsates in the bosom of angels. 

Evidently the intention of Providence is to de- 
velop a perfect humanity. The senses enable us to 
enjoy and to suffer, and they all spring from the 
sense of feeling. A perfect person will enjoy all 
that a beneficent nature has made him capable 
of enjoying. Here he finds the only good there 
is in life, the pleasures that he feels. The intel- 
lect is given to study the mysteries of being, the 
laws of action and reaction ; to discover what is 
good and what is evil. It is a guide to our acts. 
This is its legitimate field. It has nothing to do 
with the pulsations of the heart or with the 
flowing of seminal fire. 

Perfection is a perfect equilibrium of all forces. 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


289 


a natural exercise of the senses. No department 
must interfere with the perfect freedom of 
another. Love must he absolutely free in order 
to keep its elevation as the God of human con- 
duct. The moment it is subject to mental con- 
trol or legal enactments, it sinks into subordina- 
tion, where its fires smolder in a furnace of 
lust. The moment mind enters the domain of 
love it becomes a matter of speculation, of policy, 
in which it draws its heat from imagination. 
Mind draws its sustenance from love, but love is 
not dependent upon mind in the least. Man can- 
not purify love ; it is absolutely pure in all its 
phases. It is elevated or lowered in our estima- 
tion by acts noble and grand, or selfish and mean. 
Now the moment it is undertaken to divert the 
fires of love from one nerve center to the exces- 
sive building up of another, the harmony of the 
whole is disturbed. This is the case in celibacy, 
from force of circumstances or from intention. 
The repression of the natural instincts and desires 
has done more to fill the earth with prostitution, 
depravity, disease, and crime, than all other 
causes put together. The Eoman Catholic 
Church evidently borrowed the idea of celi- 
bacy and monasticism from Buddhism, but the 
practice of celibacy existed before Sakya Muni’s 
time. It is practiced, however, by none but the 
drones and leeches of society— priests, the so- 
called holy ones. We look in vain for the super- 
natural powers which this practice is said to confer 
^9 




THE DOUBLE MAN. 


upon its devotees. It seems to have been to some 
exteot practiced in the time of Jesus, for He 
said : ‘ Some men make eunuchs of themselves 
for the kingdom of heaven’s sake ; ’ but we look 
in vain for His endorsement of the practice. He 
certainly never held a screen before His face 
to shut out the view of the fair sex. On the 
contrary, His best friends were disreputable 
women. He also said : Hf ye believe in Me, ye 
shall not die, ’ and ‘ Whatsoever you shall ask in 
My name shall be granted.’ Where shall we find 
evidences of the kingdom^ of God ? Not among 
the Catholic clergy, most assuredly, but rather 
of the kingdom of his satanic majesty. 

Man is a changing being. Not a thing in the 
universe stands still. The same law holds sway 
in the kingdom of heaven, for Jesus said : Hn 
My Father’s house are many mansions, and I 
go io prepare a place for you,’ thus showing His 
idea of changes in the spirit world. Suppose a 
man progresses till he reaches heaven. The law 
of evolution shows that the process is* nothing 
more nor less than leaving behind that which he 
has outgrown, as one throws aside a worn-out 
garment, such as his follies, sins, meanness — 
traits that he has grown to be ashamed of. 
It is true these have been of use to him in mold- 
ing and fashioning a peculiar character, a 
man differing from all others ; hut having out- 
grown them they are of no use to him any more. 
Heaven’s first law is use. Well, he keeps on 


THE DOUBLE 3fAN. 


291 


throwing off the things that do not fit into the 
conditions he enters upon, till, finally, there will 
be little of his earth-life left. For instance, when 
he gets to heaven and finds no use for a sexual 
nature, of course it would become inoperative and 
be laid aside. He finds no machinery there, and 
his inventive faculties are thrown aside. As 
there is no hunger and thirst there, he will have 
no use for digestion, and stomach and bowels are 
consigned to the waste-basket. As there is no 
provision to be made for rainy days or possible 
future want, there will be little or no need of 
intellect ; and as for logic, intuition will take its 
place, so good-bye to the great minds of earth. 
There is no pain nor disease there ; then good-bye 
to the physician’s best thoughts ; good-bye to pity 
and charity, for if these noble attributes exist 
there, heaven would be turned into wailing and 
sorrow at even the thought of the condition of 
the lost. You may say there is joy there, but 
you forget that joy and sorrow are inseparable 
in human nature. The one is as necessary as 
the other, nor can one exist without the other. 
As there is no future there, hope — the noblest 
faculty of man’s moral nature — is left inactive, of 
no use. Benevolence also is left out, for its field 
of use is where suffering and want exist. Hence 
you perceive that he who reaches Nirvana or the 
Christian’s heaven must leave his human nature 
behind him. What are you then after all your 
celibacy, your fastings, and your prayers ? But 


292 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


they say a Divine nature will be given to the 
fortunate few. What do you know of a Divine 
nature? The revelations of the Jews of the char- 
acter of Jehovah certainly do not show a nature 
as good as the average human nature. The 
Divine as revealed by Jesus is a concept of exalted 
human nature, which all may reach through the 
use of all the senses and faculties of the mind, 
body, and soul, in the enjoyment of every good 
thing our Father hath given. Nothing is made 
in vain. 

‘^Behold ! a new sect has started up among 
men, called Theosophy. It is merely Buddhism 
ossified. You ask for the bread of life, they give 
you a stone. There can be no degrees, no varieties, 
in holiness. In Nirvana and heaven there is no 
such thing as individuality ; all are exactly alike. 
Mortals ! go down from this desolate mountain ! 
He who enters here never returns, for he has 
become something else than human. Nirvana 
exists all the same, for no one can conceive of a 
condition unless it exists ; and it is man’s preroga- 
tive to create conditions. Man has made Nirvana, 
the kingdom of heaven, and all the hells which 
Gautama and Swedenborg ever saw. But just 
so fast as humanity rises towards its full stature 
will the fires of hell cool, and breaches be made 
in the walls of Nirvana and the New Jerusalem. 
Go down then to the valleys of sense, where the 
sun shines and the birds sing ; where the fiowers 
bloom and the fields smile with ripening grain; 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


293 


where the orchards and vineyards laugh for very 
pleasure at their use. Go back then to your 
family circles and firesides, to your little ones, 
your wives, your lovers ; for what are the little 
aches and pains when compared to the heartfelt 
ecstasies of love ? If you know not love, strive to 
find it ! Go back to your enemies ; show them 
your worth if you are better than they, and they 
will show you the value of love. N ature revenges 
all departures from the law of love. Impotency, 
that follows fast upon the footsteps of the celibate, 
is a monster invoked from the bottomless pit, 
causing suicide, idiocy, insanity, and crime — all 
sent by kind nature to teach us the value of love, 
and the penalties attached to a deficiency of it. 
But be careful how you trifle, in your loves, with 
yourself and others. He who truly loves cannot 
wrong another. Alas for Nirvana ! The In- 
dian’s happy hunting-grounds are a superior con- 
cept. Oh, what would we give if we could take 
back some things said and done ! ” 

The voice ceased, the cloud gradually settled 
over the ramparts of Nirvana, and in its closing 
folds appeared the words, lightning-t raced, 

‘ ‘ Too late ! ” 

Then there wailed forth like a sigh from a 
broken heart these words : 

In memory’s magic halls I roam, 

Wh^re things are not, tho’ still they seem — 

The genial fireside, the happy home. 

That senseless haunt the sleeper’s dream. 


294 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


No hope, no future, nor alluring charm 
Acts on my mind — if mind remains 
Where sense is lacking. My empty arras 

Clasp in vain her beauteous form, her lovely manes. 
My heart is gone, I cease to feel 
The pulse of love, so fair, so fleeting; 

The hills and plains around me reel. 

Defying law, and order cheating. 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


296 


CHAPTEE YII. 

PARADISE. 

We stood upon a gently sloping hillside. 

Far in the distance the mountain-ranges rose 
and nestled in the bosom of the sky, which repro- 
duced, as a mirage, every object far plainer than 
the reality. The heavens were one universal 
blaze of glory overhead, far exceeding the grand- 
est Aurora Borealis ever beheld from earth. 
Vast rainbows overarched, resting in the dim 
distance at each end, as if in a mirror, which re- 
flected them below our feet, as still water does 
on earth. The earth upon which we stood, when 
gazed at with fancy’s eyes, became a mirror, 
glowing and picturesque as the soul of him who 
gazed. Think what you would and immediately 
it was objectifled in that mirror. The grim woods, 
variegated, flower-decked, were seen below our 
feet, tops downward, and we hesitated, lest in 
stepping we should plunge into still, dark water. 

But when gazed at ''fancy free ’’with matter- 
of-fact eyes the whole scene became common- 
place and stale. For to him who has no fancy 
things become stale and lose allurement ; we be- 
come wearied ; even the sun and stars lose their 


296 


THE DOUBLE MAN, 


beauty when seen continuously; their rising and 
setting are indeed birth and death to us. The 
green grass exhaled a pleasant aroma, invigorat- 
ing, exhilarating, intoxicating. The trees waved 
their branches, flower- and fruit-laden, bowing 
low as if politely greeting us, and bidding us help 
ourselves to their glorious flowers and luscious 
fruits. Innumerable groups of people romped 
and played with each other like children. Some 
promenaded in couples, as lovers do, with arms 
intertwined, or clasped in an embrace. And such 
forms ! such loveliness ! My pen falters. Above, 
as if dropping from the arching, color-decked 
heavens, garlands of flowers circled as they 
descended in the ambient air, as circle the gay, 
thoughtless young in the mazes of the dance. 
They descend ; nearer they come ; oh, wondrous 
thing ! they are flowers, but human flowers. 
Circling, they alight gracefully upon the green 
lawn as a bird lights. I am unable to explain 
this metamorphosis of a flower to a human being. 
I can only narrate what I saw. As the garlands 
neared the earth the flowers separated from each 
other, still retaining their places in the circle. But 
just before reaching the earth each flower opened 
its petals and seemed to unfold outwardly, and 
two human beings, male and female, gorgeously 
dressed in robes harmonizing perfectly with the 
colors of the departed flowers, stood in order for a 
quadrille. All manner of flowers were there, so far 
as I know. There seemed to be a limitless variety 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


297 


of them, of all shades of color, form, and aroma ; 
which latter was exhaled by the persons as well 
as from the flowers. A rose, with its half-opened 
buds, its green leaves, when metamorphosed 
into a female flgure, presented a face suggestive 
of that flower ; and the dress, variegated with 
white, green, pink, and red, became exquisitely 
lovely. Just so it was with all of them. They 
spoke not audibly, but their thoughts impinged 
upon my heart rather than my mind, in waves 
of sensation far easier felt than described. 

Simultaneously they bowed low to each other. 
Meantime I knew they were going to dance, but 
seeing no provision for music, I waited curiously. 
As they bowed, music, grand, orchestral, melo- 
dious, burst upon my startled ear. To say that it 
came from any particular source would not be true. 
It seemed to well up from the ground ; it seemed 
to float from above in harmonic waves ; the 
trees seemed alive with it ; they bowed, they 
waved their branches as if in an ecstasy of 
delight, while the dancers glided, tripped gayly, 
swung gracefully, floated, now high, now low, 
bowing, smiling, with love-light in every eye. I 
formulated the thought in my mind, Who are 
these ? and whence comes the music ? Are these 
the fabled fairies ? ” 

^^Nay,” said a voice behind me, seeming to 
issue from a tree that had been persistently offer 
ing its fruit to me — ‘^nay, good sir, these are 
messengers of love, who occasionally visit us and 


298 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


the world you came from ; every soul hath music 
and haii)s of sweetest tone within it, and they 
exhale music as they exhale the flowers you saw 
when they were coming.” 

^‘But,” I thought to myself, ‘Hhe flowers 
seemed to exhale them, instead of their exhaling 
the flowers ! ” 

‘‘Oh!” replied the voice, “ they first clothed 
themselves with the flowers ere journeying here.” 

While pondering on what I had seen and heard, 
a gentleman approached and said : 

“You seem to be a stranger here, friend ; have 
you recently come from the earth ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” I replied ; “ pray tell me, if you can, 
what kind of life do you live here ? ” 

“We live here, friend, much as you do on earth. 
But only those who are adapted to this life can 
remain here for any length of time. These whom 
you see have lived lives of love on earth ; no 
pride, envy, hate, malice, can come here. Little 
children who are not weigh ted. too heavily with 
heredity taint come here and grow to maturity. 
We have faculties, and consequently powers, 
that you have only in embryo on earth. We 
labor here, but not physically ; for instance, we 
need no tools nor machinery, but we construct 
machinery, and invent things here for the benefit 
of earth, being urged thereto by love ; knowing 
that no world can bestow perfect bliss upon its 
inhabitants so long as misery exists in any shape 
or manner on earth. We mold and fashion 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


299 


matter here in spirit by the force of will and the 
imagination. At first it is laborious and slow, 
but with practice some become adepts in the 
exercise of these faculties, and instantaneous 
productions are the result. Intuition takes the 
place of intellect and logic, for here there is no 
unbelief nor skepticism ; no such thing as doubt 
can enter where intuition rules. Of course there 
are no chemicals here as you have them on earth; 
but the spirit is here, and we manipulate the spirit 
of chemicals. Those whom you have seen danc- 
ing here bear the results of our investigations to 
earth. The spirits of all your churches, colleges, 
institutions, governments, legislatures, etc., are 
here, and we have circles of those remarkable for 
will-power engaged in sowing the seeds of free- 
dom in those institutions. But it is a slow pro- 
cess owing to the cloud of Karma that hangs over 
earth’s inhabitants. We manufacture food from 
chemicals, and soon this process will be made 
known on earth. These trees bearing such deli- 
cious fruit are produced by will force. Our 
savans are constantly improving, and adding 
new varieties. Just so it is with everything you 
have on earth. We desire that the earth shall be 
filled with the glory of love. If it were not for 
our prescience we should indeed be miserable 
here. We have the power to scan the future, 
and can read its pages better than you can your 
histories of past events. The events of a nation 
as of an individual are of little value except as 


300 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


milestones on the road of progress — guiding, 
warning, protesting. The memory of events is 
worthless otherwise. So in viewing the future 
the past is mapped out. The density of Karma is 
weighed at certain periods and cycles of time, and 
the changes that have been wrought therein are 
noted, as well as the increase of true spirituality. 
From such data we calculate the unwritten future 
unerringly. As you say ‘History repeats itself,’ 
we say ‘ The old becomes the new, as often as the 
new becomes the old ; ’ and in each renewal there 
is a closer union, a more perfect sympathy, a 
closer knitting of the ties of love. As a tree in 
its growth forms rings in the wood to mark the 
years of its growth, so is it with the world. Each 
cycle leaves its ring in the form of a spiritual 
sphere thrown off from its incomprehensible self, 
which, indeed, is the mind and spirit of it. 

“In studying these spheres we become ac- 
quainted with the passions, the mind, the spirit of 
the world at certain epochs. Thus do we read God’s 
word. Thus is everyone read and known by us, 
if we choose to read individuals. The race of 
mankind is also triune — body, mind, spirit. These 
three are inseparably woven together ; and 
although the spiritual part must suffer from its 
association with the wild animal nature of the 
race, which on earth is the dominant part, it is 
that which escapes the meshes of Karma, and, un- 
wearied in its labors of love and use, continues its 
work here. It corresponds to Abel, who was slain 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


801 


by Cain, the first-born, and also to the beautiful 
character of Christ, who suffered at the hands of 
brutes set on by the controlling mind of the age, 
the mind of childhood, of worship, of fear, of 
carnivorous animals delighting in blood ; the 
mind of traditions, sticklers for the law and the 
observance of days. I say this animal nature, 
guided by the best mind they had, crucified the 
Spiritual One, the spiritual part of itself, and this 
crucifixion continues to this day.” 

He paused, but in response to my mental inquiry 
continued : 

‘ ^ All are free here ; there is no restraint ; there 
are suggestions which are instructive only, but 
one’s own intuitions must be the guide. Some 
who enter have got satiated or wearied at what 
may seem to you one eternal sameness, and 
desiring rest, lie down, and the moment they 
close their eyes they are awake, and by new vibra- 
tions of ecstasy, tested, renewed, and surrounded 
by different scenes more adapted to their peculiar 
needs ; for ^ in my Father’s house are many man- 
sions,’ and every desire must find its own. If one 
enters alone, he or she can find no permanent rest, 
but changes from one condition to another till they 
meet their counterpart and are made complete, 
two in one. Thus complete, all things and all 
places are satisfying. They, having harmony 
within, create harmony without. It is such 
beings who visit the lower worlds, and teach by 
precept and life the true way. It is such who 


302 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


are the saviors of the race, the destroyers of the 
hells. On earth there is such dense ignorance of 
spirituality, and such bigotry among the leading 
minds of the churches, that very little progress 
is made. To observe certain days and forms of 
ceremonies is the acme of spirituality with them, 
and the only road to salvation. To be saved is 
very simple. You need no worship, no holy 
books, nor holy days, but simply ‘ do as you 
would be done by. ’ To keep the hell of selfish- 
ness out is to have God in the soul. Such come 
here to stay. If any get wearied of well-doing 
they return earthward of their own accord, to be 
reincarnated again and again. Worship does not 
elevate the soul. On the contrary, it debases, be- 
cause, in the worlds of forms, that which is spirit, 
and hence formless, must needs fall into forms, 
wherein intellect bears sway, and love becomes 
secondary, and in connection with the animal 
instincts becomes unholy — to be ashamed of and 
hidden from sight. Worship of the spirit is in 
love of our kind, and needs no words nor cere- 
monies. Love is the only happiness, the only 
heaven, the only immortality. According to 
your love, so shall it be with you. 

‘‘Partake of this fruit, then return to earth ; 
clasp hands with the angels of love, and work for 
man, for there can be no perfect bliss in heaven 
so long as one lamb is out in the awful night of 
ignorance, in the stormy wrath of love. For, lo ! 
love hath fallen into the base passion for gold 


THE DOUBLE MAN. 


303 


and the lust of rule. Alas for the poor lambs 
who toil to feed the greedy while they are them- 
selves hungry ! 

‘^Woe unto those that are of no use in the 
world ! for the Angel of Freedom is about to blow 
his trumpet, at the sound of which all thrones 
shall topple and all crowns be humbled in the 
dust. Woe unto the priests of mammon ! ‘God 
is all and in all.’ ” 

Here ended the manuscript. I have not heard 
of Don or Ina since, but I am satisfied that they 
are still on the earth, as they must have been at 
the time of penning it. If I ever learn more of 
them I will write again. 

Fraternally Yours, 


Freeman. 



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